Appreciate

Today, Molly and I were running some errands.  I needed to visit the Apple Store to have my phone looked at and Molly wanted to visit Build-A-Bear. We ended up our morning at the Creative Kids Stuff in The Shops at West End located in St. Louis Park.  She bought some presents for her brother and I bought a last minute entry on Zach's list.  As we were leaving, we were admiring the decorations and the little bit of frosting that the snow left last night on the holiday greens.  Then a lady came over the PA system to thank us for shopping, it seems all The Shops at West End really "appreciate" our business.

Molly turned to me and asked "What does appreciate mean?"  I explained it means that you are thankful or grateful to someone or for something that you have.  Then our conversation goes like this:

M: Oh, well then I appreciate the snow.
R: (slightly sarcastic) Oh yeah, me too.
M: And I appreciate mittens. (which came out just after she touched the snow with her bare hand because she left her mittens in the car)
R:  Yep, because warm mittens are something we all appreciate all winter long.
M: And, I appreciate you, Mommy.
R: (tilt head) Oh. (hand to heart)
M: And Daddy too.  And my brothers too.
R: Oh, well I appreciate my beautiful little Molly too.

(music swells for camera close up of the embrace with light snow falling all around. hold for 5 seconds and roll credits)

 Ok, it wasn’t quite a Hallmark Christmas special, but it was pretty cute.  Of course at this point we enter the parking ramp where a lady had decided to light a cigarette out of the winter wind.  My angelic daughter starts coughing in a not so subtle fashion.  When the lady stays in her spot puffing away, my daughter coughs louder and then covers her nose.  When that doesn’t work, Molly starts walking like she can’t go on.  After much unnoticed drama, she reaches the car where she closes the van door before her body even is fully inside as her final protest.  I have to say, of all the things I appreciate, her flair for drama might be tops on the list.