Dinner and a Movie

I had my night yesterday. (In case you don't know our annual Christmas tradition of the Night of the Giver, click on the link to read Paul's description of it on his blog). I always do the same thing for my night and have for the past 14 years. We always go to dinner or lunch and see a movie. With a family our size, seeing movies in the theater is very costly, so it is a very special time when we all go together. It is one of our favorite Christmas traditions and we always try and pick a movie everyone will love.
But before the movie, we went to lunch at our new favorite Mexican place, La Parilla. This is a fairly new restaurant here in our town but it has fast become one of Paul's and my favorite places to eat. Most of the kids had never been there yet, so it was a treat for them. Sam and Ben ordered chicken strips (big surprise!) and the chef cooked them too long, so he had to put in a whole new order for them which made their meals arrive late at the table, well after we had begun eating. The restaurant felt so bad for their mistake, they took off the cost of both meals from the ticket and gave us a free dessert. I say they well compensated for their mistake!

After lunch we went to see the new Narnia movie, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. We loved it. We have loved all the Narnia movies (in fact, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe was a movie we saw during one of my nights!) and this one was no exception. It was a bit intense for Sam and Ben, but not too bad.

It was a fun day and we enjoyed spending it together. But of course, we missed Zack. This is the first year he has missed this tradition and our family just wasn't complete without him. I guess Paul and I will just have to start getting used to the idea of not having all our children participate in our family traditions anymore. That's a sad thought. But on another note, maybe one day we'll have grandchildren participating with us! (Who am I kidding? I know Grandkids are probably in my near future, but with one still in diapers and one not that far out of potty training, grandchildren still seem so far away!)

Wait till you see my little children in their Christmas outfits! They look so cute, but even cuter is Emma in her Santa suit!! Pics to come.