Over Christmas something happened that brought far too many giggles not to share.

Dw’s big brother Steve and his wife, Diane, had sent us a monetary gift for Christmas.  It came with strict instructions:  Blow it on something fun!!  

We laughed when we read the note.  They know us all too well – blowing money is not really part of our DNA.

Dw and I talked and we decided that we would take the family out for dinner, which we had not done in ages.  And actually, if we did it right, maybe we could even get two dinners out of it.

Everyone thought it would be fun to do a bit of shopping and then Dw and I figured we would end up out for dinner.  Chili’s was near where we were going and we heard they had some dinner specials.   Perfect!

The day was lovely.

Truly.

We laughed and talked and walked arm and arm through the mall.  When we were leaving we drove across the street to the Chili’s.  The kids were thrilled!!

The hostess seated us in almost a private area, after all, we were a party of 11.  As we checked the menu we thought about the possible selections, reasoning that we could really make this work.  We would order and split things up and end up with only spending half of the gift.  It seemed we could quite possibly pull it off and have a second ‘blow it on something fun’ dinner!

In the course of ordering, the waitress and waiter {they gave us two – ha!} both clearly thought the kids were extra sweet.  We shared a bit of our story and the waitress shared how she had always loved the idea of adoption.   A blessed time!

Eventually the waitress brought our food and we split things up.  It was great fun!  The kids loved being in a restaurant to eat and the table conversation was so lively.

After an entertaining time of dinner together, Dw excused himself to the men’s room.

About the moment he walked away the waitress came to the table.

She said, “Every once in a while, during the holiday season, we like to show our customers our appreciation for them with ‘Dessert on Us’.  So if you are up for it, we would love to bring all of you any desserts you want.  

Oh.me.


I love when God has little surprises for us along life’s way.  

Graham, Emma, Liberty and I giggled in disbelief.

Seriously?

Being in the restaurant to eat was a thrill to all of us, but free dessert too?

WOW.

We ordered several desserts {some would split} and the waitress rushed off to have them made.

About that moment, I realized that Dw was missing this whole thing.

And I could hardly contain myself.

“Let’s not tell Daddy what she said.  Let’s pretend 
that we just decided to spend the 
rest of Uncle Steve and Aunt Diane’s money on dessert.”

Emma, Graham, Liberty and I were howling.

This was gonna’ be really sweet.  {pun intended}

Dw came back to the table and we carried on talking and enjoying ourselves, never letting on what had transpired while he was gone.  Within a few minutes of his return to the table, the waitress returned with a tray laden with some delectable desserts.

Dw’s eyes were huge as she placed the tray on the table and started to hand them out.

He whipped his head to me and with a face of panic blurted out,

“What is she doing?”

I smiled widely, “Babe, we changed our mind!  Uncle Steve’s note said that we should blow it on something fun and so we decided that dessert would be the most fun.”  

His eyes grew wider still and with a fairly firm tone,

“You are kidding me, right?”

Smirking, I responded, “Nope.  Look at the kids faces, Dw, they are so excited.”

His expression was clearly not appreciating any part of my reasoning.

Emma and Graham piped in, “Dad!  Uncle Steve wanted us to blow the money on something fun!!”

Dw was definitely not amused now.

At.All.

Not even a speck.

Which made our giggles turn to uproarious laughter.

And our uproarious laughter was actually ticking him off.

“We said we were going to try to make this stretch to TWO dinners out
 and I went to the bathroom and you just go ahead and change our plan?
 Just like that?”

Graham, Emma and I could hardly talk we were laughing so hard.

Truly.

Minutes passed we were laughing so hard.

Dw, however, was not laughing at all.

{I thought I was going to have to excuse myself to the ladies room, but then I remembered I had surgery for that.}

Slowly I managed to eek out of my laughter what the waitress had said and how all the desserts were ‘on the house’.

“Really?”

“Yes, really.”

Dw’s expression was priceless.


And, actually, so was dessert.