I got a new title this weekend:  GRANDPA.

That’s better than President, Chairman, General, Doctor, Esquire or Supreme Commander.

The job requirements to hold my new title are rather fuzzy…but warm.  The key elements are love, hugging, smiling, tears of joy and a heart bursting with gratitude.

I’m grateful for my daughter and her husband.  And I’m grateful for the two babies who qualify me to be grandpa.

Juliana Therese and Lucy Faustina are fraternal twins.  You probably notice from their names that the family is Catholic.  I’m grateful for that.

I know.  I’m sounding really sweet and annoyingly happy.  But I can’t help it.

My wife and I will mark 43 years of marriage in a few days.  Yes, I’m grateful for that.  And people who know me realize that she must be a saint.

I have great plans for the twins.  I’m going to teach them how to fish.  I’m thinking they will take piano lessons.  Maybe they will be artistic, like their grandma.  The might write a little.

But if all those dreamy plans go by the wayside, it really isn’t important.  The only thing I need is to look and them and thank God.