This past Saturday I sat at my favorite restaurant with my family. A fun and delicious place, Tomato Street is the type of establishment with white paper table cloths meant for customers to draw on with crayons. As I was sitting next to my dad he took a crayon from a tomato sauce jar and did a quick portrait of me. I snapped a photo of his artwork and posted it to Instagram. When I did that, I received a comment asking me if I saved the sketch. I responded that while I did not salvage that particular drawing there was no need to worry because I have many other similar sketches safe and sound at my parents’ house.

This was the drawing my dad of me at Tomato Street this past Saturday night.

Growing up in the Reser household, we had a few artsy traditions. Last spring I shared with you the plates we created each year. However, there is one tradition that was carried solely on by my dad and it happened far more often than once a year.

My dad had a neat tradition where he would create drawings for us on special occasions. Here is some of his work from my high school years.

Whenever one of us three kids had a milestone, big event, or special achievement my dad would commemorate it with one of his unique sketches. Using a style that is 100% original to my father, he would come up with something that would make us feel special and that would always make us smile.

Here are some of the sketches my dad for me while I was in college. As I left home each year to start the new school year, these would be waiting at my spot at the kitchen table.

We would receive these little treasures at the kitchen table in the morning. There at our spot at the table would be the drawing. It was pretty much the same deal as Santa delivering the presents. We would never see him drawing the sketch nor would we see it before the morning, it would simply be there when we woke up. Sometimes the medium would be a piece of computer paper, sometimes it would be a napkin, sometimes it would be a paper towel.

Here is some of my dad’s napkin art.

At a point while I was in high school, my mom started to save these meaningful works of art. Up in her room now, she has a folder for each of us three kids bursting with these drawings. Last night as my time in Spokane for the Thanksgiving holiday started to wind down, I took a look at my folder. It was the first time I had ever seen the contents before. It was so cool to see my journey from high school to college to my professional life as depicted through my dad’s thoughtful drawings. My mom said she wished that she would have started saving the drawings earlier, however it is a thoughtful act in her own right just for having the presence of mind to start keeping them.

Some more of my dad’s drawings.

This tradition in my mind is so significant just because of the uniqueness and thoughtfulness that was put forth by my dad. I don’t know anyone else who received such cool drawings waiting for them at their spot at the table on their birthday or on their graduation day. This is just another example on how my childhood was special and why my dad is such an outstanding individual. Don’t Blink.