We head off after I get of of work on a Thursday, you know, about a week after I start my new job. We definitely know how to plan things. We finally get out the door hours later than I had planned, and we stopped just over an hour away at a Cracker Barrel, to have dinner.
I could tell you how the dinner seemed to be one calamity after another, but the most important thing is I saw the most beautiful sign. While wandering around the store inside Cracker Barrel, I saw a black sign, with white lettering which read "one big happy family".
I pointed it out to Gunner, he laughed. Em laughed. Abs laughed. Jr. laughed. I bought the sign and declared that we would hold it up in every picture from here on out!
I can't say that my children shared in the enthusiasm, but trust me, they saw a good thing. I could imagine them showing their therapists later the pictures of us together holding the sign, and them declaring it the root of all evil. How could I say no?
While growing up, my mom once received as a white elephant gift, a small snow globe with an elephant holding a sign saying "Joy to You!" We made fun of the present, but the running joke in our family was to say "joy to you" in almost every situation, and the white elephant gift would often appear in someone's spot before dinner time. Eventually the snow globe lost its water, but we still continued to use it. Even today, 30 years later, that same white elephant gift is a topic of conversation, and if one of my siblings is feeling down, a gentle "joy to you" will at least have them smile for a bit.
Thinking of this story, is why I had to buy the sign. So over the course of spring break, we posed with this sign at Disneyworld, Legoland, roadside attractions, state lines, and much more. Just the other day we took the girls to camp, and as we posed for a family picture in the car, I realized we had forgotten the sign. I tried to convince Gunner to go back, to no avail. We were left with this picture:
