No sooner are the Christmas decorations are stowed away in the garage than our house takes on a whole new emphasis:

Pinewood Derby Car Construction.

At our house, Pinewood Derby car engineering is more than working on a chunk of pine. It’s male bonding to the max. It’s late nights reveling in the odors of freshly sanded wood, metallic shavings, and graphite. (If graphite has a smell.) It’s an opportunity for tool acquisition; paint color tests and endless sanding of every surface, big and small. In short, its magnitude brings me to my knees,

“Can we please call it a night? It’s time for bed!” I plead.

Through the dust and settling graphite, I watch a father and a son, focused, driven, and so deep into the particulars that time and fatigue are no longer factors.

Last night we hosted a Pinewood Derby car clinic at church. I watched the sons with their fathers (and a few moms) and I felt a new affirmation in the power of

TIME spent together,

SIMPLICITY (despite a few gadgets),

and the BOND between fathers and sons.

And Mark, age 3, asked no fewer than 17 times if we’d make a car for him. He, too felt the draw of the blade, sander and pine. We did the math. In ten years, we will have 9 Pinewood Derby cars. Just one January without a race.