Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Favorite pictures amd moments: holiday edition

December came and went, almost. I'm getting ready to go see the in-laws in California and I was emptying my camera and came across some pictures that made me smile. I thought I'd share real quick. Some will have stories attached, some will have a quick caption, and some will be for you to use your imagination.

This entry makes me happy.The red hat ladies at Mimi's Cafe. I want to join when I'm old.Gingerbread out house.Taylor's natural disaster gingerbread house.Slimer ran into my house. And someone peed in Paul's pool.
Have yourself a 'Snuggie' little Christmas. (Deb's artwork.)I wish I could find a Christmas tree topper that looked less like a star and more like a giant gold glittery explosion...I can't begin to tell you how much I love this lady. She turned 87 on the 27th of this month.2 of my co-workers. They are way nicer than they look.The Wood Co after party.This is the wife of a guy that works in the wood shop. She kept falling asleep and it kept me entertained for like 20 minutes. I took several pictures of her and this is the one where she finally caught me.My father in law pointed out to me on Christmas that this is my first real 'White' Christmas. It was wonderful. I love my husband.Christmas day was great. We ate all day, but by the time Paul and I were driving home, I was craving a turkey dinner! We always have ham at my aunts house, and a ton of other food. Let me assure you, a lack of good food was not the problem, it was just that I was craving a more traditional Christmas dinner which didn't happen. My sweet husband drove to Denny's to try and make my dreams come true. That place was packed! And as we walked in I started to feel so sad for all those people working and all the lonely looking people filling the tables. I started quietly singing, I'm dreaming of a white (trash) Christmas... Our server came and I told him I needed the closest thing to a traditional turkey dinner. He informed me that they had just sold out of turkey and they stopped serving mashed potatoes at 10PM. It was like 10:03PM. He was really good to us though. We talked a bit about Christmas, his family, that he'd worked on Christmas eve as well. And that he'd missed his turkey dinner that day too. He gave us a free salad with our chicken and fried potatoes, (yuck, not even kind of like turkey.) But what are you gonna do at 10:30 on Christmas night? When we got up to go pay we decided to tip him a little more than 15%. We payed the cashier and added a $50.00 tip on the receipt and quickly left the restaurant so he wouldn't know. We'd parked behind the building and as we got the the end of the sidewalk in the back of the lot and turned toward our car we heard from behind us, "You guys? Excuse me, you guys?" We turned around and saw our waiter running down the sidewalk toward us. He reached out and shook both of our hands and said, "Thank you so much, you guys really don't understand what you did for me." He was a bit emotional and kept repeating himself and stumbling over his words, "Seriously, you don't know what you've done for me. Thank you both so much." I smiled and said, "Merry Christmas." Then we turned and walked away. I don't know why we decided to do what we did. I guess the words of a very wise man stay in the back of both our minds, "The more you give, the more you get." And if someone is working on Christmas, it's because they have to, so take good care of them. 50 dollars isn't much, and the gratitude we received from that young man that Christmas night was worth more than anything we could give. Do something good, pass it on.

1 comment:

Crystal said...

I love that you guys gave him a $50 tip. That reminds me of the night Clint and I were out to dinner and he said "I'm going to throw in an additional $100 tip." I am ashamed to admit this, but at the time he said it I was a little shocked and didn't want him to. (cause it's $100) Then the thought was, "Crystal, you don't know what his life is like and if Clint gets the feeling to do something good, then allow it." That was the best night ever.

By the way, I love reading your blog. I really want to do a "Project 365" Send me your email so I can invite you to my blog. howe424@hotmail.com