I Can Hardly Believe It

Tonight my dear husband, daughter dear and I were home alone.... just the three of us (and the dogs, of course). No boyfriend. No other friends. I made dinner and we ate at the table together all at the same time. I attempted to recreate the Thai chicken pasta I had last week at the Cheesecake Factory, and came very close! I even got a "way to go, Mom" from Miss Critical. No hugs ... but, I mustn't be greedy.

In any case, we ate dinner together as a family, just like in the "olden days" before we all started working such crazy hours. After dinner we sat down and watched TV together, sort of. DD was on the computer and texting her boyfriend from the phone, but she was at least in the same room with us and she was also sort of watching TV. We watched "American Idol" and then "Dancing With The Stars". Such highbrow tastes, but it was fun to critique the performances and compare our opinions with each other and with the judges.

The remarkable thing was that the three of us passed an entire evening in the same room and there was not one episode of drama. No arguments. Nobody stormed out of the room in a huff. I found myself wondering at one point if I had been transported to the "Twilight Zone" or something.

We even engaged in some off-and-on conversation, at least until DH fell asleep in the chair and I started getting antsy because I wanted a turn at "my" computer.

Now, everyone but me is in bed. (Why is it that women go to bed after everyone else and still manage to get up first???) It is quiet and peaceful. Everyone is here and safely abed. I am enjoying the afterglow of a lovely evening en famille with no fireworks. It has been a long time since we have had an evening like this. Given the upcoming schedule, my guess is it may not happen again for a very long time. It was an evening worth marking as special.

There was nothing "special" about it. That is what makes it so precious.

I can't decide if I want to be thrilled at being blessed with such a wonderfully unexpected evening or to be sad at the thought that we have so few like it. I am leaning on the side of the former. Particularly since these evenings will probably become rarer and rarer.

In any case, I am spending these last few minutes of my day feeling intentionally grateful.