Friday, July 25, 2008

Fine Dining is Relative

A woman just related an interesting childhood memory on NPR. Years ago she attended a snooty private school on scholarship, and each September when the teacher asked what everyone had done that summer, this girl would describe her family’s low-budget road trips to local cities while her classmates talked about their trips to Europe.

One year, after another student described “another stupid trip to stupid Paris where we ate at some stupid restaurant where they only spoke stupid French,” the girl who always stayed local got up and told everyone about a fabulous restaurant her family had been to. She recalled the novelty of carrying her own food tray, getting her own soda, and serving herself as much ice cream as she wanted. That evening, the family phone rang practically off the hook as her ritzy classmates’ parents called to learn the name of the fine eating establishment their kids were so eager to try.

While I’m definitely looking forward to our own family vacation back East later this year, I appreciated this reminder that you can make memories wherever you are, and you don't even have to leave home to have fun with your family.

5 comments:

Science Teacher Mommy said...

We're having a French meal tonight called lef tovers. Delicious.

Kimberly Bluestocking said...

Ironically, we had the same fancy dish at our home tonight.

Jodi Jean said...

hehe ... SOOOOO true!!

Cathy said...

Hey. I just visited your blog after a longish lapse occasioned by looking at too many airline tickets while online. Do you know that it's cheaper to fly a family of five to Guatemala in Oct than Albuquerque for Thanksgiving?

Congratulations on being pregnant. I'm sorry for the tardiness.

Try eating lots of protein to deal with morning sickness. It keeps your blood sugar from spiking as much, which does a great deal towards preventing nausea. I remember my sense of shock when my doctor told me that it was my healthy eating that was making my nausea worse :-)

Don't chastise yourself for taking shortcuts with Joy. I know you're doing your best--you wouldn't do anything less. Remember too that it may be helpful for her to learn before the baby's born that she's not the only center of your universe--it might prevent subsequent resentment!

Gotta go. Gwyn's crying.

Serena said...

Oh yeah, Hello, That's all kids really want, is the real stuff and be with thier families.