A Christmas Gift

Today Buddy, Quinn and I did all our Christmas shopping.

Yes, you heard me correctly. We did ALL the shopping. TODAY.

(Yes, I know we waited to the last minute. But we scored some major deals!!)

Shopping today reminded me of last year when we did all the shopping on a Saturday afternoon. It was cold, and I was 9 months pregnant. (So technically, Quinn was with us that day too.) Usually I do all the shopping myself, but last year, Buddy insisted on going with me. He was convinced I would go into labor in the middle of the Christmas crowds.

I remember we went to several stores and then several stores at the mall. Then before heading to some other places, we decided to stop for lunch. We went to a particular restaurant because I had a craving for their potato soup. We were sitting at a booth fairly close to the front door, so we got to see anyone who came in or left the restaurant.

We talked and laughed as we realized this would be our last Christmas as just "the two of us". You see, we have shared Christmases since 1997, the year we started dating, and this would be the last one before the baby came. We had a wonderful lunch and it was nice to rest, since I was hugely pregnant and knew we had more stores to shop at. We finished our lunch and told the waitress we were ready for the check.

She came back a few minutes later and told us we were free to leave whenever we were ready. "But we need to pay our check first", we told her. She smiled brightly and said, "Oh, don't worry about that. Your bill has been paid. Another customer, who wishes to be anonymous, paid for your bill!"

We left the restaurant that day with the biggest smiles on our faces! I thought things like this only happened in movies. It's never happened to me before. It ranks up there as one of my most memorable gifts.

We never found out who did this for us, and I'm sure we never will. All I know is that these people were still in the restaurant when we found out. Did they have any idea how much this gesture would mean to us? Did they know that exactly one year later we would still look back on that day with such good feelings? What was it about us that made whoever it was decide that they should buy our lunch? I can only hope that the look of surprise on our faces filled them with as much joy as their thoughtfulness filled us.

Here's a look at our family picture for this year, and you can also get a peek at two of the best gifts God has blessed me with...my wonderful husband, and my beautiful son.