Las Lomas is my favorite Mexican place.
IN THE WORLD.
One of the highlights of our Thanksgiving weekend in the Valley was our breakfast with Tony and Andy and Leyla and Umpa and my mom and all of us Tates. I wonder, as I type this, how many times I've eaten there?

    
     Miles loves Uncle Tony.  And who wouldn't?  He's a wonderful Uncle, and I am so blessed to have him as my own, and so thankful that my children have him, too.  Whenever we spend time with our Rini family, I see my kids with Tony and think about how much my father has missed out on.  Tony is a great-uncle unlike any other, and I see how God has used him and my Aunt Marlene to fill the hole that my father left us with.
     
        My dad's birthday was yesterday.  It's been eight and a half years since he died, and it's still so fresh at times.  I can't think about his birthday without thinking about how he would have hated it.  I wish, though, I wish...that the hole didn't exist, and that I had been eating at Las Lomas with my dad and Uncle Tony and Andy and Leyla and and Umpa and my mom and Bowden and three of my favorite people that he never met, but I know he would have loved.  Happy sixty-fifth birthday, dad.