Food fights & laughter

After church today, we went to the China King buffet. We were eating like a nice little family...and then it all went south. Larry has a knack for encouraging others when it comes to embarassing situations, taking the edge off & helping them to not be so embarassed...all while giggling. Once when I was pregnant with one of the kids, we were eating in a restaurant & I dribbled ketchup down my shirt & it landed on top of my gigantic tummy. I looked up, shocked & embarassed. Of course it was a light-colored shirt so there was no hiding this giant smear of ketchup. I grabbed a napkin & tried to wipe it away but it just smudged & smeared it further. I dipped the napkin in my glass of water & tried to get it off that way, but it just wasn't happening. In a moment of despair, I looked up at Larry & he could see that I was embarassed. He grinned, stuck his finger in the BBQ sauce on his plate & rubbed it down the front of his shirt. I swear, even now, 10+ years later, I can't help but grin ear to ear re-telling the story. It was his sweet way of making me not stand out in the crowd...showing me that he was in this with me & would be embarassed right along with me if he had to. I remember sitting at the table giggling at his sweet gesture, feeling so very loved. He just grinned back at me & kept eating like it was no big deal. I swear, the man has NO concern where public embarassment in concerned. He would've dumped a cup of tea over his head if it made me feel better that day. (Ahhh...I love him!!)

So anyway, we went to China King today. Sarah was on the far side of the booth & when she came back with a plate full of curried potatoes, Samuel & I got up so she could get to her spot. She "walked" on her knees across the bench & just as she was turning to sit down, her plate went flying into the booth behind us. A friend was standing at the end of the table talking to Larry & she was so embarassed that she began to cry. Luckily, no one else was in the booth where her plate spilled, but she was mortified that she'd clumsily dropped her plate in front of our friend. I went to get a new plate for her & to let an employee know. When I came back to the table, her tears were gone & the giggles had begun. In an effort to make Sarah feel less embarassed, Larry had picked up a (very small!) piece of chicken off his plate & flung it over his shoulder. (There was no booth there, just a waiter's stand where they'd get drinks or write up tickets.) The kids roared with laughter at the sight of their very well educated, intelligent, mature (well...maybe?) father tossing chicken. But it worked. Sarah was no longer embarassed & it cheered her up.

As I sat down with Sarah's replacement plate, the food fight began. No one threw food out of the booth, but Sarah's shrimp tails (the part you don't eat) went flying at Larry. Larry's rice was flung at Samuel. Samuel attempted to toss a noodle, but when it didn't make it across the table, I gave him a stern look and said "Samuel! Don't toss noodles. That's gross. If you're going to throw something at Daddy, go for a chunk of Jello." He thought he was getting into trouble, but my silly statement made the giggles begin all over. Before it was all over, everyone had tossed something. Savannah was laughing so hard she could hardly sit upright. Larry elbowed her in a teasing way & she fell right out of the booth onto the floor. Of course that made the rest of us laugh hysterically. Then there was the conversation about Sarah tossing her "shrimp butts" at Larry. Oh yes, all sense of etiquette was gone. By this time, it was just us and 1 other occupied table in the whole restaurant so "public manners" pretty much went right out the window.

The waiter delivered our fortune cookies to the table about the time we all quieted down. Samuel got a rare 2 in 1 fortune cookie. His 2 fortunes were "You will experience great success in medicine." and "You will experience great success in entertainment." Since those were the 2 he got, conversation turned to his ability to become an entertaining doctor. Songs were sung about telling a patient they have a cold while playing an instrument....another child suggested tap dancing while rhyming a prescription "take two of these tomorrow!".

Around this time, we decided that it would be best for us to leave...before we got kicked out. ha ha!

There are days like this when I am horrified at the behavior of my goofy family, but most of the time they DON'T behave like this, so when we have a day like this, I try to keep my head on straight & remember that these are the days that build memories. These are the silly times they will remember into adulthood. These are the days I should cherish because all too soon, my two 9 year olds and my 13 year old will think we're dorks for having fun with them like this...all too soon they will be grown up & gone and I will wish we had one more silly lunch with them at the chinese restaurant.

Thank you, Father, for food fights & lots of laughter.