SEAHAWKS ARE GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!!!

Enough said.

Pancakes and Candlelight

This morning, Nathan, my youngest son, was awake for about 5 minutes when he groggily asked me, "Mom, can we have pancakes for breakfast?" My son is a pancake-a-holic!

I hated to break his heart. "Sorry, honey, we are running late for school. Gotta have cereal."

I was then given the saddest face I have seen in a long time. "Maybe you and daddy can make them for dinner."

He perked right up. "Yeah, good idea!" and he was down the hall in an instant to confirm this with his dad.

I got the cereal for him and our day continued as normal. During the course of the day, I called Chris to remind him that Nathan and he had an appointment at dinner time.

At around 2:40 that afternoon, I sat in the van waiting for the boys at school. Joshua, my oldest son, came running in out of the rain with his regular greeting: "Hi mom. Got anything for me today?"

A few moments later, Nathan appeared, skipping down the sidewalk in the rain with a look of sheer joy on his face, got in the van and greeted me with "We are having pancakes for dinner!!"

Joshua chuckled. I smiled. "We sure are. Let's go home."

"I just know dad's home already."

To his disappointment, however, Chris wasn't home yet and Nathan had to keep himself busy while waiting.

When Chris finally did come home about 45 minutes later, Nathan was ready to go. Unfortunately, Chris was wet and tired and in need of a break.

"You need to wait, Nathan. I want to sit and have a bath first."

"Okay." Nathan replied sadly. However, this did not dash Nathan's spirit. While Chris was relaxing in the tub reading his book, Nathan had put his pancake dinner plan into motion.

"Mom, I need the Bisquick."

"Okay, I'm coming." I went into the kitchen to help Nathan and saw that in preparation for his dad, Nathan had gotten the frying pan, a spatula, a mixing bowl, a mixing spoon, butter, 2 eggs and an apron and put it all on the counter.

I got the Bisquick down and handed it to Nathan.

"Thanks, mom."

During all this, to make another long story short, Joshua and I had to run into town for a quick errand.

"I'm leaving." I told Chris through the bathroom door.

My expectation on returning home was Chris still in the bath with Nathan sitting by the door, patiently waiting for him.

Joshua and I arrived home to a completely darkened house.

My son, in all his excitement, and my husband, not wanting to squash it, had put on their aprons, set the table with 4 plates, forks and knives wrapped in napkins (which I was told Nathan had done by himself) and pancakes piled high on a plate. All this with 2 candles burning in the center. It was the most beautiful candlelight dinner table setting I had ever seen.

"Here's your chair, mom." Nathan informed me, right at the head of the table.

"Thank you, Nathan. You did a fantastic job."

I smiled at him and he smiled right back at me with that 6 year old grin I love so much. It was the best dinner I had in a long time.