Whatever: Fun comes in small packages

My youngest daughter had her final soccer tournament in Atlanta this weekend.

Soccer is over until February, which is lovely for me and my ever in motion car.

However, my daughter loves it, so she cried today after not getting what she felt was enough play time in the final game. Sadness ruled our car, which was inhabited by her, her best friend/teammate and her older sympathetic sister. We were unsure of how to cheer them up. 

Then...

We discovered something cool...

at the restaurant at which we ate lunch...

Computerized drink fountain.

More accurately, Coca-Cola's 100-Flavor Interactive Freestyle Soda Fountain.

Intrigued? Click!

Peach Sprite? Check! Raspberry Diet Coke? Check! Lime Fanta? Check!

They consumed about 4,000 calories in soda. Problem solved, everyone was happy!

We went two doors down to my favorite grocery store, Trader Joes.

I love, love, love Trader Joe's. Even on Sunday when you can't buy awesome four dollar wine. I bought lots of awesome, healthy food for my family. Groceries for a week, in fact, for $153. Seriously. 

Meat (hormone free), seafood, snacks, broth, yogurt, broth for soup, vitamins...and...gingerbread mix.

I love gingerbread. In fact, it may be my favorite dessert. Not cookies (which I love as well), but moist, cakey gingerbread. For one dollar and 69 cents, I brought  home that mix, added some dark chocolate chips, and baked it up. My house smells like heaven and it was cheap.

And delicious. Easy as that.

Amazing what a little thing, like a fancy soda machine, or a box of gingerbread mix can do for the spirits. As we embark on the insanity that is HalloweenThanksgivingChristmasNewYears, I appreciated the little reminder that little things are indeed the big things.

I love that little girls who have ipods and digital cameras are so excited by something as silly as fancy soda choices. I love that my family sat around our kitchen table, doing homework, reading the paper and chatting while stuffing our faces with an easy bake cake.

Little things become the stories we tell and the memories we later think were big events.