Christmas recap, part 2

On Fri Spouse & I met up with friends for our annual pizza and hippie roll luncheon.  Typically there are just 8 of us, but unbeknownst to each other, Kerry and Spouse both invited their families to join us so our group nearly doubled to 15.  Spouse's family is Catholic, Spouse & I and our friend Alex are gay, Alex is also Latino, my mother-in-law and Kim's mother-in-law are both in their 80s, Kim's mother-in-law is also Japanese, Lisa is an atheist, and our nephews are 19 & 21 year old college students.  We were quite the diverse group.

What's a hippie roll?  Its probably 1 of the most delicious items you can eat that doesn't contain chocolate!  Take Italian sausage and slice it length-wise.  Lay it on pizza dough and add sauteed peppers and onions.  Roll up and bake until golden brown.  Absolutely delcious!!

For our group of 15 we ordered 30 hippie rolls, 3 large pizzas, 1 salad, 1 pasta dish, and 15 drinks.  This info will be important in a minute.

We had lots of great conversations and laughs as we caught up with each other and really just enjoyed being together. 

My friend Lisa and me.  We've known each other for 40 years.

A woman we didn't know walked into the restaurant, saw us eating/talking/laughing and said "Oh good, I'm not too late for the party!"  We all laughed and someone said "Pull up a chair!"  Then Kelly said "You know the last 1 to arrive has to pay the bill!" and we all laughed even more.  The woman sat in a nearby booth and was joined by 2 men and a woman a few minutes later.  After finishing their meal, the 4 strangers said that it was so nice to see people who truly loved and cared for each other and got along so well.  They admitted to eavesdropping on some of our conversations.  Then they handed each of us a small religious pamphlet and invited us to join them at their church.  We politely thanked them and wished them a Merry Christmas.  After they left we snickered a bit about the invitation and someone said something about hell freezing over before they'd be caught in a church, but it was all very light-hearted. 

Once we'd finished our meal and asked for the check, the waitress informed us that the folks who'd given us the pamphlets had paid our bill.  We were all in shock, and immediately regretted our snarky comments about the pamphlets.  We estimated the bill was over $200 without the tip.  So we left the waitress a generous tip and vowed to send a thank you note to the address on the pamphlet.

After saying our goodbyes we took Spouse's mom back to her place and relaxed at his sister's house for a few hours.  Then for dinner we met up with our friends Liz & Justine.  Spouse & Justine worked together 20+ years ago and were roommates for several years too.  Liz & Justine lived with us for 18 months while they saved to buy a house.  We met at Cantina Mexicana (also known as the Taco House) at 7:30 and left at 11:15.  The time just flew by!  It had been a few years since we'd we seen them so we had a lot of catching up to do.  We also got great hugs from Juan & Gloria, the owners of Cantina Mexicana, whom we've known for 20 years.

We had a fabulous day reconnecting with friends!