A Rare Family Meal 

In a rare moment these days I had Russ and Carter with me at the same meal. It was such a treat. Russ flew in late this afternoon from a week in Chicago, Minneapolis, New York, and Washington, DC. Tomorrow Carter is going to Charlotte and Russ is back out to Chicago.  
The times that Russ and Carter get to see each other are fleeting so I am doing my best to maximize these opportunities. Tonight I enticed Carter to have dinner with us before going to watch the DUKE UNC basketball game by taking her to JuJu an Asian restaurant she had never been to. My plan worked perfectly. Carter wondered, “Why have I never been here before?”   
When all my parent’s kids had moved out on their own my parents built a house at the beach. I asked my Dad why he was building such a big house with a pool and he told me, “I have to make it really nice so you and your sisters will want to come visit us.” I thought that made us sound very shallow, like what, are we not going to want to visit our parents anyway?  
Now I find myself in that same position. In order for us to get time with Carter we have to offer something better than her friends. It works out fine that we can go to an early dinner and then Russ and I get to come home and go to bed early and Carter can go out, but that is not always the case.
We are about to embark on our last spring break. I figure that Carter may want to do spring break with friends, at least that is what I did in college. But maybe I can learn from my Dad. Maybe I can create someplace so fun that Carter will still want to visit us. For now I am happy if we eat a meal or two a week together.