Puzzle Description:

One family tradition that my family had every year was Hockey Pool Weekend. It started on the Friday morning. Daddy would arrange for my mother to take a trip to Ottawa to visit her family. Before work, he would make sure that she boarded her train safely, and off to work we would go. (or school, when the tradition first began) When we would arrive home, the weekend of fun would begin. Dad would 'cook' dinner (which usually involved him making the call to our favourite pizza joint and we would talk hockey pool strategies for a few hours, watching our favourite sports shows. The next day, the hockey pool discussions would continue, (we were big-time hockey general managers) ending up in our favourite sports bar enjoying very tasty and expensive chicken wings that mom would never approve of us eating. (my husband would also join us for the wing luncheon) After husband left, we would return to the house and watch Hockey Night in Canada from start to finish. Grabbing at least two or three Tim Horton's coffee's to make it through the night. Sunday morning - Draft day. Dad would drag me out of bed and we would get a good breakfast somewhere. (This year we went to Denny's.) We would grab a coffee at a Timmy's drive-thru and head out to the draft. We would spend the whole day bartering, trading and having fun setting up our awesome teams, which gave us a whole season to talk about hockey. (driving Mom and Hubby NUTS) End of the draft, Daddy and I would get one more Tim's for the road (I drink mine triple triple, his are double cream one sweetener) and we would call the husband. We would drive about forty miles to a half-way point between my place and Daddy's (I moved away when I married) and meet in a Tim Horton's parking lot to 'switch custody.' I'd buy the last round of coffee, and give daddy a big hug. I would tell him that my team was better and that I loved him bunches. We would follow the teams for the entire season, and have a lot of fun doing it. My dad passed away two weeks ago. I miss him terribly. Hockey pool weekend will never be the same, but I'll keep the team going in his name. For the record, I just got the results for this week... Daddy's team beat mine 10-3. (I guess I don't have the better team now do I?)

#1: Web Paint-By-Number Robot (webpbn) on Nov 17, 2009

New version published by jladano.

First of all: I'm very sorry for your loss. It'll be nice to have lots thing to remember him by, specially this one.
Second: could you please change the name to # 47 WCP My family ....
It makes it easier for us to track the contest puzzles.
Thanks for your entry!
In the U.S I know of something similar called "Fantasy Baseball", I don't know if it's done with other sports.

Jen, thanks for sharing your story about your Dad. Your grief must be very deeply felt. I'm sorry you lost your Dad, but I' glad you have such happy memories.

There's lots of love in your puzzle. I like the hearts. :-)

What a beautiful memory of your father. I'm so sorry for your loss, but I'm glad you had that time together.

P.S. I'm partial to Double-Doubles myself :)

It would be interesting to play hockey in a "pool."

Odd image. The story made sense of some of them. Fun solve.

Sorry for your loss - your dad sounds like he was a really great guy. Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful tradition. He stays alive in your heart.

Goto next topic

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