We have one Fishers Christmas story to share, please feel free to share your own. As Christmas got closer this year I kept on thinking about last Christmas Eve. It was Christmas Eve Day 2004 and my wife and I were off to her parents' house in northern Indiana. We had a late start and decided to get some fast food and eat on the way to Kendallville, Indiana. We stopped at the Steak & Shake at 116th Street and I-69 and ordered our 'usual' at the drive-thru. The Steak & Shake in Fishers is quicker than most and we were next in line after a few minutes, behind a woman waiting for her food.

When we drove up to get our food, the Steak & Shake employee informed us the woman in front of us had paid for our meal. A complete stranger in the drive-thru came up with the idea to buy the cars meal behind her. We were shocked, Fishers own version of "Pay It Forward". What a 'Christmas-like' concept! Not asking for a gift in return, not even asking for acknowledgement, she bought the lunch for the car behind her on the day before Christmas.

So in the Christmas Spirit, and only because of the woman in front of us, we paid for the car behind us. We drove up to Kendallville talking about how nice that woman was for buying our lunch. What a wonderful gesture to surprise a stranger like that, even if it was just a fast food meal. Curiosity also led us to wonder about the reaction from the car behind us. Were they as surprised and grateful as we were? Did they buy the meal for the car behind them?

We imagined the rest of Christmas Eve Day at the Steak & Shake drive-thru; people were getting a 'free meal' and then paying for the car behind them. Imagine an entire day of no one paying for their own meal. Every car drives up to the drive-thru and learns their meal is free, and then decides to buy the family's meal behind them. It's nice to think something like that could happen these days, especially so close to Christmas. A sincere thank you to the 'woman in the car in front of us' for confirming our faith in other people. A little gesture like that made for a Christmas Eve in Fishers we will never forget.