Breaking Tradition

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Breaking Tradition

One day in early 2006, a brand new couple was cruising down the highway when then the following conversation happened:

Guy: I'm hungry, want to go eat somewhere?

Girl: Sure! Where do you want to go?

Guy: You pick.

Girl: I really don't care; you pick.

Guy: No, no, no. It's okay, you can pick wherever you want to go.

Girl: Seriously, it's your turn, I always pick. You pick.

Guy: Okay, how about Olive Garden?

Girl: If you want Italian, let's go to Carraba's we just passed one.

Guy: I KNEW IT! I knew you really weren't going to let me pick! I don't even know why I tried!

Girl: It's still Italian. Why go to Olive Garden when there's better right down the road?

Guy: Erroneous.

And I feel the same about Dominos.
We all know I call a lot of shots; it's in my blood.

So it's become tradition that we never go. Like literally have not been to either in the history of our relationship. And when he's ranting, the subject inevitably seeps out of the water works.

But for the birthday boy, I sacrificed my opinions for his happiness and surprised him at work with Dominos pizza for lunch. What better day to break a tradition than on a traditional day of celebration?

His face lit up so big, the people he worked with might not have even recognized him.

And later the next evening I blindfolded him, drove him around in circles to disorient his sense of direction, and took him to the restaurant he's been raving about for the last 7 years. I thanked my lucky stars when we got out of the car and the aroma of Hooters next door and sound of live music down the road threw his senses off even further.

Patrick is a terrible sport when blindfolded. I literally I had to drag him through the parking lot, then contain his unnecessarily wild extremities from knocking anything over once in the restaurant.

He didn't make it easy on any of us to keep such a big secret, but I think we all pulled it off pretty well.
That morning I almost ruined everything as we were lying in bed and I blurted, "We need to get a birthday card for your sister." Which I quickly followed up with a damage control statement, "To mail her. It will be late, but it's the thought that counts."
"What are you talking about? You know we don't do that. We just call each other."
"I know, but I just thought we'd be extra nice this year." Dang it, woman, pull yourself together!

That evening as I frantically ran around trying to get ready, Patrick yelled up the stairs, "Hey Hunny! Olive Garden called, wondering why you haven't shown up for your reservations yet!"

"They did?" Crap! You know better than to fall for that lie! Your phone is in the upstairs bathroom. "No they didn't! We don't have reservations at Olive Garden! I told you earlier, just because you keep saying it over and over again isn't going to make it come true!"

I don't know if he really was surprised by the restaurant (even though he promises he was completely kidding when he was pretending to know), but I do know he was super surprised to see his family, which made his night.

But why stop there?

We were all surprised to read the icing script on the cookie cake. "Happy Day OFF BRITH" What in the world? I think the bakery ladies need to slow it down with those special brownies.......

And we were super surprised when Dusty did something silly all by himself!

But not very when he feel asleep on the couch in the middle of all the commotion. Oh that chronically sleepy brother of mine......

After some quality family time, our Waco clan went home, but not before our infamous self-timer family shot.

We finished off a great night of celebration by bundling up to take the doggies on a stroll (I get fancy with my eclectic fashion for dog walks).....