The Buckeyes made my Day!!

So, you may recall my plans of last week to go out with my husband for a quiet dinner at a nice place. Well we did that. But the evening was lacking something. I felt like we were both trying to have a good time, but coming up short nonetheless. We were stuffed from our overpriced food, and tired (as always). There were no movies playing that we were interested in, and we thought about just going home. It was only 7:30 and we didn't want our sitter, who happens to be his mom, to feel like we rushed home because we didn't think she could handle things. So, just to kill some more time and take advantage of the fact that we did have a sitter, we went to a few enormous Home Improvement stores.
It was okay, but not romantic and honestly not all that fun. I felt guiltier afterwards that I had had more fun at the Mary Kay party Friday night at Heather's house.
So yesterday The Ohio State Buckeyes played Michigan (their arch rivals). My husband loves the Bucks. He said "if OS wins, I'll take you and the kids to dinner." He added,"we gotta have something riding on this game." Well for awhile it didn't look very promising. But, the Bucks pulled it out. So we decided to go, not to Friday's which is our usual haunt (kid friendly etc...) but to some winery my husband's friend recommended. My husband didn't know the name, nor had he received very good directions. And we wondered how much this place might accommodate our kids. But we decided to give it a try.

When we started out, my husband decided to take 'the long way'. I didn't think that odd since we drive the 'shorter way' very often in dropping off and picking up kids from my mom's house. Although at 5:45 it was already completely dark and we decided we weren't really going to enjoy a change of scenery. My husband was second guessing his choice of routes and somewhat cursing himself. Well this route took us through a very small rural town. They had a circle at the center of town with a gazebo in the center. We noticed a lot of people gathered near the gazebo in the total darkness. "Hey, they are going to light the Christmas lights," my husband said,"Do you want to stop and wait for it?" Well, I knew the kids were hungry and we still had some driving to do, but the timing seemed so perfect and I thought the kids would love it. We parked and walked over. There was some music (some lady singing Christmas songs) and the gazebo was decorated to look like a carousel. We stood in the dark for almost 10 minutes, wondering when the lighting would occur, when guess who showed up? That's right, Santa Claus himself. My 5 year old's jaw dropped at this. Well he came right over and said hello to my daughters, asked them if they were good and all. Then went up to the gazebo where he used his magic dust to light the circle up. Cool. We all received free glowsticks to play with too. My husband then tried to act like this was all part of his plan, which made us both laugh. It was just luck, but very special for the kids.

Okay off to the winery whose name we do not know and which we are uncertain how to find. We headed in that general direction. Suddenly my husband and I spotted an enormous Buck (a male deer) standing right at the edge of the road, his huge head almost hanging over the road. My husband hit the breaks and moved to the left. You never know what the deer will do when they get scared. But this big old guy stayed put THANKFULLY. He was awesome, a sight to behold. I've never been that close to a buck that size. Whew, we continued on, talking about how impressive he was, and how badly our night could've gotten.

We had absolutely no luck following our friends 'directions' so we started cooking up a plan B. We know the area because it isn't that far from my mom's place. So I suggested we go to Ferrante, a winery I've dined at twice and recall liking. We went in and were relieved to know they would be seating us in 10 minutes. If we had gone to any restaurant in Mentor we would've waited 45 min if we were lucky (it was about 6:45 by the time we got there). We got seated and our waitress was very nice. There was live music which was a nice surprise. There was also a portion of the place turned over to a gift store, which we checked out while we were waiting. Our food was great. The atmosphere was warm (fireplaces buring, beautiful woodwork, music and the right amount of crowd noise). My kids were awesome. They were eating well and being fairly quiet. I noticed different patrons noticing them and then smiling at me. I am so proud of my girls.Then the entertainer, Stan Miller I believe it was, came through the crowd with a cordless mic on his sax. He played a long time for my kids. My sweet embraceable you, I think the song is called. The crowd delighted in watching my children transfixed by this music. It was unlike any experience my kids had ever had and they couldn't believe this man was playing for them, they were astonished. I was drinking some wine, feeling relaxed and happy, having so much fun, my husband even made this toast:"To You" he said with a sparkle in his eyes. I raised my eyebrows in surprise. "Does it get any better than this?" I asked, to which he smiled and shook his head. Then the table next to us got up to leave,"Excuse me," said a man from this party," You have some incredibly well behaved children." I nodded in agreement and thanked him. My husband remarked to me,"It does get better." My older daughter decided she would really like to give Stan a glowstick to thank him for the personal performance. He came over to us between songs, spoke to each of our children and told them that he could play for them all night. He commented to us how children have such an affinity for the arts. Each of my children gave him a glowstick (leaving them each with one as my husband and I had already given them ours). He shook our hands and we thanked him for the wonderful music. My daughter then drew some saxophones on her placemat. When we left, my daughter really wanted to give Stan her pictures and some candies we were given at the end of our meal. He was playing in a mezzanine high above the restaurant. We were not allowed up so I gave these gifts to the hostess who assured me that they would be delivered.

It was weird that we had a very shakey plan, and we didn't even follow it at all. We had the most amazing night we've shared in a long time. Who would have thought we could have a more romantic evening with two kids in tow than we managed to do on our own last week? Santa, Christmas lights and music, The lighting of the circle, The buck, the beef wellington and the seafood alfedo, the cheesecake and service, our wonderful children, a bottle of wine, Stan Miller. It was just awesome, a night I'll remember for a very long time I'm sure. Thanks Honey. (This morning he told me that I deserved a really fun night).