Our 8th Anniversary

Okay, let's face it, I was a little sad to be celebrating my anniversary in Texas. For seven years, Tanner and I have gone to the same restaurant, the very first restaurant we went to as a married couple -- Pazzo's Ristorante, famous for it's gnocchi and lemon drop martinis. I'd gone to several places this year in search of gnocchi and a passable lemon drop, but hadn't found any, so with a heavy heart, I resigned myself to eschewing all of our traditions except for one -- bowling because I had discovered a great bowling alley just a few blocks from our house.

Tanner had a restaurant in mind, so this morning I reminded him to call the restaurant to make a reservation even though I doubted we would need it. Imagine his chagrin when he discovered that they were open Thursday through Sunday. Life intervened and for some strange reason he ended up taking Kate to the store to pick up a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk. I didn't like the idea of leaving him with the burden of finding a restaurant. I sat down at the computer and looked at the search he had been performing. There was a list of fine dining restaurants in our area. I clicked on one titled Christopher's. It looked interesting, the type of place that offers live jazz on the weekends and interesting menu choices for dinner.

We dropped the kids off at a friend's house and headed out for dinner. We were seated in a large booth, surrounded by plush pillows with eclectic jazz music wafting around us. Crisp linen table clothes AND correctly placed utensils (which is an immediate tip off for all fine diners), large glasses for red wine, smokey lighting, and a cocktail list. They had a lemon drop for $10. I ordered it. I'm happy to say it was BETTER than Pazzo's Ristorante. Then they brought the menu. I was perusing it and had decided to order lamb when I read the last item: Wild Western Duck...served with gnocchi.

I almost burst into tears. Isn't it amazing how God blesses us in such minuscule ways? I had given my traditions into His keeping, and He gave them back to me. Aaaahhh...the gifts of God are given without repentance, and it was the best anniversary present He could have ever given me.