December 30

For a while, it was our custom to go out to lunch on Saturdays. When Adam and I were still young parents, Sweet Tomatoes --where a wide-eyed toddler Isaac conducted exacting assaults on many a bowl of peas-- was our destination. A little further along on the timeline, it was all about Red Tractor.

Anyway, Abby's been feeling nostalgic about those days, so she asked if we could go to lunch today. So we all piled into Charles (which is also sometimes known as the Explorer) and drove over to Black Bear Diner.

Some of us had breakfast while others went with lunch options. And we all had a good time together talking and researching our random topic of the moment: the world's biggest shopping malls. (Don't ask how it came up because I'm not sure.)

Time around the table --any table-- with these people is a blessing.