Traditions

When I was a little girl I would go to the hardware store with my dad on the weekends.  Sometimes our trips would be for supplies for honey do projects my mom gave him, sometimes we just needed batteries, but most of the time I think Dad just wanted out of the house.  Whatever the reason was I really didn't care; I just liked hanging out with my dad.  I still remember my hometown Ace Hardware well and can visualize the layout.  The guys that worked there knew us by name and I usually left with some sort of treat.  My parents divorced when I was eight and Dad moved to the other side of the state.  These special moments with my Dad are the very reason I want create similar traditions for my boys.  A current routine for us is our Saturday morning breakfast at "Bill's".  Bill's is not the name of the diner, but the name of the owner.  This little local restaurant is a weekend retreat for many where they call you by name and know how you like your coffee.  The boys love Bill and his wife Julie and all the servers.  Bill will take the boys around kissing the old ladies and let them come behind the breakfast bar area to pour their own milk.  To top it off, the food is good and the service is top notch.  We usually see one or more of hub's old high school coaches in there talking about the weekend game and making bets on what positions our boys will play.  We leave with smiles and full bellies.

We went to Bill's as usual this Saturday but Sunday decided to give the boys an extra special treat from my home state of North Carolina. When hubs and I lived in NC, Missouri did not have an Krispy Kreme stores so we made a big deal about taking visitors there to get a little piece of warm heaven with icing right off the belt.  Since moving back to MO I tried to avoid Krispy Kreme at all costs.  It is kind of like going pee the first time after I have had a few beers, once I start I can not stop!

I did it for my children.  We drive up to the store and pull in the lot.  "The light" is on; they are hot.  We enter and each of us are handed a piece of the heaven I mentioned earlier.  No need to order now but we do anyway.  I am a fan of sprinkles so we get a couple chocolate sprinkle donuts and sit down at the window bar with our milks and coffee.  The boys decide Uncle Matt and his fireman buddies are hungry.  We order a dozen.  They hand us more off the belt.  I think I may explode.  We are walking out the door and I notice our dozen is now ten.  Do you think they noticed?