Tonight, my brother- in- law wanted to celebrate the purchase of his new car by taking us out to eat at a Japanese steakhouse. We happily agreed, he must have gotten a great deal on that Mazda! I did a very quick once over of the kids, made a couple of them change in to more respectable clothes and we were off.
Once we arrived at the restaurant, Charlie pulled the boys aside to give them the lecture about not chewing with their mouths open and using utensils instead of their hands. Then went through the lecture about not ordering the most expensive item on the menu. It was not crowded and we were seated right away. As we walked across the room, I was dismayed to find that she was going to seat us with a couple who was already seated. Crap! Now there would be witnesses to my kids lack of manners. Plus now I've got to pretend I'm not shy and make small talk with strangers. But I didn't hesitate to take the seat next to the gentleman as I did not want any of my kids sitting next to him.
The kids were almost angelic tonight and the conversation easy. The food was delicious and we talked about schools and found we lived in a neighborhood right next to where he had lived in his first home here in the Houston area. They had played an afternoon of golf, and I talked to the woman about her dog and spoiled dogs in general. He let Ace open his chopsticks and I was momentarily horrified as I realized I had not checked his fingernails before we headed out the door. The gentleman acted as if he never noticed a thing and continued trying to overcome Ace's shy act. It was a lovely evening and as the kids were finishing up their ice cream they wished us a Merry Christmas and headed home.
As we hurried the kids to finish up, the waitress came over and told us that the man sitting with us, had paid for our meal. They paid in cash so we were unable to find out their name or to say thank you.
Merry Christmas indeed. Our blessings are many and our hope is to be a blessing to others during Christmas and always.
5 comments:
That is so very cool. He was passing it forward. I love that!
Wow! That was so nice. You all must have made quite an impression.
That is great. How nice! He was paying it forward, that is very cool. Your kids must be VERY well behaved, congrats on that. There is no greater compliment for a mommy! :)
Kind of gives you a little faith in humanity! I love a happy ending!
That is so sweet! Hearing stories like that always makes me want to go out and do something like that.
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