Food, Friends and Laughter

Last night after church we went out to eat with a big group of friends. There were 20 of us all together (including kids!) in our own little section of Mark's Feed Store. The 8 kids all sat together at their own table. With the oldest being 14 and the youngest 6, I fully expected some problems from their table. Amazingly, their was no drama. Everyone got along. There were no food fights. No spilled drinks. Nothing. It was so nice to see the kids playing quietly together relatively unsupervised. As a parent, it's hard not to expect too much out of your kids sometimes. Especially when there is a large group and the service is a little slower and the patience of hungry, tired children runs thin. But these kids, all of them, were as close to perfect as they could be.
I had a great evening. Not only were the kids good without having to be threatened, but we enjoyed the company of good friends. Some we see on a regular basis, but others we haven't seen in awile. There were even a few we don't normally get to visit with outside of church. It was really nice. And even though we couldn't have an evening out free of problems with the bill (I hope my dancer friend got her credit card issue straightened out!), being surrounded by people who genuinely care about you and whom you genuinely care about is essential to personal happiness. We used to go out for dinner with big groups like this on a regular basis, but things have changed and people have moved on. I had forgotten how much I NEED these seemingly insignificant times together. I hope we don't wait too long to get together again; just talking, laughing and sharing stories. There is nothing like food, friends and laughter. . . all rolled up in one evening!