A Christmas to Remember

About 20 years ago, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers recorded a holiday album. One of the songs from that spectacular audio classic was the hit "A Christmas to Remember." This year, we surely had that kind of Christmas and just as Kenny and Dolly promised, it gave us that "springtime feelin' in the middle of December."

Annie's parents, H.D. and Jill Reed, were here in Shanghai to celebrate Christmas with us - Chinese style. With Bu Chou in the hospital until Dec. 27th, our plans just kind of evolved all week. With the help of our housekeeper (who could sit with her at the hospital during the afternoons) we were able to spend some quality time with the Reeds. On Christmas we we had a nice morning here at the house before heading out that afternoon for Christmas dinner.

We had several thoughts on what to do for a perfect Christmas meal. We thought about doing a turkey at home. We also thought about having a large Chinese meal at a restaurant. In the end, however, we decided the best place for a memorable holiday meal was the Shanghai Hooters. We didn't exactly know what to expect, but were definitely not disappointed.

Upon walking into the restaurant we were greeted by 15 Hooters girls shouting at the top of their lungs in unison "Merry Christmas and welcome to Hooters." We were also surprised to see a very large Christmas tree in the foyer (as an FYI, we now know what Charlie Brown's Christmas tree would have looked like if it had been 20 feet tall). About halfway through our meal, 7 waitresses crowded around our table and one of them made an announcement:

"Attention Hooters! We want to extend a special greeting to this lovely family that decided to have their Christmas meal with us here at Hooters. Please give them your applause." The 7 nice ladies then proceeded to serenade us with a version of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" that none of us will EVER forget.

After this one hour of fun, we all (especially H.D. and Scott) certainly had that "springtime feelin' in the middle of December!"