A Very Special Thank-You

This afternoon, Karl and I were finishing up our shopping separately and planned to meet at a mall restaurant at 5:00. I arrived first with Garin, and he showed up shortly thereafter, looking sharp in his flight suit. We had a nice dinner - turkey burger for me, triple burger for Karl, stuff from home for Garin. There was a nice older couple in the booth diagonally across the aisle who smiled at Garin a few times during dinner and stopped to tell us on their way out that he was such a sweet baby. Shortly after their departure, our waitress came to our table and told us that our meal had been paid for by that couple, and they asked her to tell him, "Thank you for your service to our country, and Merry Christmas." Wow. You read about this stuff in sappy emails or Chicken Soup books, but it's not something that you ever actually see happen. It was so touching. I got up and stepped outside to thank them, but I couldn't see them anywhere. They were gone. I hope that they know how much it meant to us. I hope that somehow they will know what an amazing thing that is to a military family that is celebrating Christmas far away from family because of duty but is just thankful to be together for the holidays. I hope that someone in the area who hears OUR story of a stranger's kindness will know this couple, and our thankfulness will be passed on to them. But for now I'll just put it out there into the universe for anyone who has gone out of their way to say thank you to a military service member........THANK YOU!!!