It's all in the presentation 10/31 #SOL17

There is a new gas station on the south side of town.  I believe it is a Fast Lane.  It is spacious and well lit, both early in the morning and late at night.  It opened a couple of weeks ago, and it seems to be fairly busy already.

One of my boys has been requesting to go "check it out" since its opening day.  The boys have some kind of fascination with convenience stores.  There is something about the displays of candy and chips and drinks splayed out like a rainbow behind glass.  I suspect he wanted to "check it out" in hopes that a treat would end up exiting out the door with us.  

There is a novelty to visiting a convenience store.  Well, for us anyway.  We don't actually go into the store when we get fuel because all the pumps we use are pat-at-the-pump stations.  When we are on a camping trip in the summer, the boys will sometimes be rewarded in gas station hot dogs and Lays weird new flavor potato chips and possibly a drink (but usually just a water from the camper).  

Because we create this scarcity in visits, it becomes a real treat to go to the new gas station.  This is what I have found, according to recent conversations between my boys and I in our daily commute to the sitter, school, and back again.  This daily travel brings the lights of the new station, including a colorful LED advertising sign, into our peripheral sight twice a day.

So, yesterday morning, we find some extra time, after dropping the baby at the sitter, when we can FINALLY go to the new station.  The FINALLY was from son #3.

It was clean and new and clean.  It was nice.  The boys were impressed that there were three kinds of Sour Patch candies.  #3 ended up with a package or watermelon flavored.  #2 son chose Bubble Gum by the Foot.  Both got a Gatorade.  

Their days were made, early on in the morning.  It was a great start for a Thursday.  You may be thinking, "That is not special."  Or say, "Your kids are deprived in some way."  I'll tell you that it's all in the presentation of the occasion.  If I make it out to be special, it will be.