Shef and I recently attended an intimate family dinner at Culver’s in Chanhassen. Chanhassen, while close to Valley Fair and the famed dinner theater, is not particularly close to Casa de Sheffield; but what can you do. It’s family.

We’d never been to Culver’s before, and I admit I was pleasantly surprised; although, the chicken fingers would have tasted a whole lot better if I hadn’t read Fast Food Nation. Stupid slaughterhouses. Why do they have to be so e-coli laden and maggot infested?

Anyway, mid-meal, we broke into song to distract two-year-old Cousin Emily from her impending tantrum, and “This Little Light of Mine” was the chosen ditty. Our index fingers swayed in perfect unison, and we bobbed our heads happily. “Let it shine, let it shine, let it shiiine!!” we sang. Shef and Emily thought this was great fun, and our fellow diners didn’t seem overly perturbed.



And then Aunt Mary plowed cheerfully into the second verse, which, for her, goes like this:

“Don’t let Satan blow it out! I’m gonna let it shine!”

Needless to say, my sister (there she is in the middle – isn’t she cute?) and I stopped finger-waving and burst out laughing.

“What?!” asked Mary. “You don’t sing it like that?”

Um, no. I like my “Light” a little farther away from the fire and brimstone, thank you very much.