Unexpected Surprises

Last night we had small group. We were told to come, with a nice shirt on. I think the words "there may be pictures" was somewhere in those directions too! They said, feed and bring the kids but don't feed ourselves, that we're doing something special. I just assumed we'd all eat together while the kids played in the basement. Before we left Zach was like, "I'm not really in the mood to go" and I was thinking "Too bad buddy". We'd missed so much, with Thanksgiving, missing a week and our snowstorm. I missed our group!

We get to the M's house and start to get settled when they come by the door and tell Zach & I to keep our coats on. Huh? They handed us an envelope and told us to open it in the car. They did this with the other 3 couples also. Had us drop off our kids and go out! I did take Abby though, as she was rather fussy when we got there. I didn't want her to be a stinker for them! So, they had a pinata and presents for the kids. They also got to decorate ornaments. How sweet!!! I get in the car and open the envelope. There was a note saying how their business was blessed this year so that they wanted to do this for us. They said they wanted us to go to this restaurant downtown, a real nice one that they'd pick for a first date, one of their favorites. There was a gift card for said restaurant in the envelope with quite a good portion of money on it!

Can you say sweet? We just couldn't stop talking about how nice that was and how blessed we felt! It's so rare to find people who do such thoughtful things, you know? So, we follow the directions and get to the place. It just LOOKED expensive! Definitely not somewhere we'd ever choose on our own! I almost felt weird having Abby with us and hoped it was 'toddler friendly'. It smelled wonderful. The prices of the meals were outrageous! To quote Zach, "And I thought Olive Garden was expensive!" I decided I was going to get something I'd never normally get and ordered Three Cheese Beef Medallions. Zach got Alaskan Halibut. It was good food. I enjoyed my medallions until Zach took a bite, said it was good and that it reminded him of liver or cow tongue. I must say I lost my appeal for the food after that! LOL

Abby was very good, thankfully. We enjoyed our meal and had a good time talking. The only downfall? There were gays everywhere. The table next to us and the next two tables both had two gay couples. I even heard the guy next to us say something about Wednesday night being date night. YUCK! You could tell that even our waiter was gay. I just tried not to look that way and enjoy myself! I must say it was a huge blessing and we were just so thankful to the M's to bless us in such a way!

The kid's had a great time! They were very thankful for their presents. Sarah said my kid's were the only ones who said "Thank you" (sorry I had to brag about it). Hannah got this Disney Princess tea set that you paint. They all showed me their gifts at home and when she was showing me hers she said, "I could use this for my Barbies or something" (it is small). Later in the night I got to thinking about it. She's not at all into Disney Princesses anymore and yet she didn't say, "Eh, I don't like this" or anything like that. She tried to find the good out of her gift! I was so proud of her. She is looking forward to painting it later. She also got a movie that she looks forward to watching (The Prince and Me). Just had to brag about my kid's a bit. Ok, I must go and start school.