Copied from 360 ON sUNDAY by me

A Long blog, but please read it

I am having a great time. Really, I wish all of you could be here with me to share in my great time, but you cant, so Iwilll have to tell you all about it.

Yesterday morning we picked up the kids at the airport. It turned out to be one of those things where we got to the airport just as the plane landed. John dropped me off to go meet the kids, he circled the airport then went and parked at the gas station just outside so hewouldnt'havaetoto pay parking.cheapskate. Just as I walked in, the kids came around the corner. We went over to get their bags, and even those came out first. Alex put strips of masking tape on the luggage so it would be easy to identify. We were out of there in fifteen minutes. I think that is a record.

After we got home and the kids got settled, they went over to seeClaires's family. This is the first time she has really been away from them, and the whole homesick thing had to be fixed. She missed her mom and family. Poor thing. I know how that is.

Later on in the day I got a call from my new friend I met from the Soldiers drive thingy. She is a very nice and generous person. She is like a walking Oprah moment, I swear. So she asks me what we are doing Saturday morning, and if we would like to go to breakfast. She explains that a group of friends from up north do this every year. they find a little cafrestrauntant, maybe a mom n pop type of place. there is usually a single mother working there. They all go together, haseperateate tabs, but leave a tip the same as the bill, if not more. Oh wow! how great is that, yes I want to go. She tells me where to meet and at what time, and I ma so excited I cahardleyly stand it. She said last year the group left a tip of 1500.00 for the lady.As it turned out, she had five kids and had no idea hosahee was gonna dochristmass for her kids.

So this morning we all meet, have a great breakfast, and paid our billsseperatlyly. We then put our tips all in one pile and my friend counted it up. We left a tip of 350.00. So we called the waitress over and gave her the tip. She tucks it away in here book and skitters off with a thank you, never looking at the amount of cash. Wdidntn't want the her to just throw the entire thing in a sharing bowl for all the staff, so we called her back over and asked if she got to keep all her tips, yes she did. Did she knhpowow much her tip was, no shdidntn't. She she looked and just about fell over. She was like, I need a hug and she hugged every one of us, even the little kids. This was her first day at threstrauntrant. We were her first customers. She has seven kids at home and this is goingsurleyrly help her out.

We left there feeling so good, and this was so easy to do. If you ever want to do something from the heart, try this. I think we will do it every year, just for fun.

OK, that is it for now. If you have gotten this far in this long blog, I thank you for taking the time to read it. Now once again, Merry Christmas.