Food vs. Hugs

“Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.” Romans 12:10

Today is a day of love…

To me, that means food. I’m a feeding kind of Mama.

Some mothers hug and cuddle and kiss. I go board-straight and hand over a cookie.

The hub is the hugger in the family. I think every family needs at least one. I have three, including the sons, and they are constantly trying to convert me.

Anyway, I was wandering around the grocery store on Saturday, trying to figure out something “special” for us to eat for Valentine’s Day. Something the kids would like, but would feel “special” enough for a slightly over-exaggerated holiday.

While in the produce section, I found heart-shaped foil pans filled with a pound of strawberries and a little cup of chocolate dip. I thought the kids might like that until I saw that it was $12.95! I got my wheels turning and remembered the chocolate chips I’ve had up in the cabinet in a mason jar for at least a couple of months and the evaporated milk I bought during the snow storm just in case I had to revaporate (is that a word?) it for us to drink during the Great Milk Shortage of 2011. Which incidentally lasted two days and I have three cans of evaporated milk to show for it.

I also remembered that I already had bamboo skewers in the drawer, apples in the fridge, and bananas on the counter. So, I bought a pound of strawberries for $4.95 and a package of grapes. Three pounds, I think, but we eat grapes like candy – and you know how much I like candy!

Last night, after our mostly representational meal of chicken fried rice, I broke out the skewers, lit a candle, and gave everybody their own little dish of melted chocolate.

Needless to say, we ate like pigs at the trough and all nearly slipped off into a blood sugar coma.

I guess my meal of “love” was successful though, not in the way we all moaned and held our bellies afterward, but in the way the kids were still talking about it this morning.

“Great!”

“Best Meal Ever!”

“Can we do that again?”

Very rarely do I make a meal that survives in memory after sleeping it off.

And who wants to go to a restaurant anyway?

I hope you’re feeling loved today, although I won’t help by hugging you. Maybe a nice pat on the shoulder or something.  ((Pat, pat))  Here, have a cookie!

Happy Valentine’s Day!