Thursday, February 23, 2012

Real Grandfathers Make Pink Pancakes for Valentine's Day

When I returned from the gym around 8:45 one chilly Sunday morning, my husband proudly handed me 2 heart-shaped pancakes laying side-by-side on a warm plate. On the counter, he motioned as he showed me, was a 6-inch stack of heart pancakes. While I was spinning like a crazy woman in my early-morning Sin Spin class, my husband had dug in the cupboards and found my giant heart-shaped cookie cutter which he then used as a form on his griddle it to make perfect pink pancakes for the grand kids. Pink heart-shaped pancakes in honor of Valentine's Day, topped with fresh and juicey strawberries....what a Grampie!

But, the best was yet to come. "I hear people, Daddy. Wake up," my blue-eyed, precocious little granddaughter whispered as she tried to rouse my step-son. In a fog from cold meds he'd taken the night before to tame his persistent cough and runny nose, he squinted at his daughter who was no more than an inch from his nose, shaking his shoulders, "We can have a tea party, Daddy?" We had talked about a Valentine's Day tea party for the few days leading up to this particular Sunday. We were going to have our little tea party on Saturday but Daddy got sick. So Grammie and the girls spent Saturday afternoon making yummy sugar cookies and paper valentine's for family members.

"Yes, we will have a tea party today," my step-son announced to the girls as they jumped up and down and zipped around the condo as excited as if they had just found Willy Wonks's golden ticket. At 10:00 a.m. we all set the table, ready to eat again. I brought out the ceramic teapot covered with harvest-colored panseys that my father had hand-painted for me in 1996. I filled it with warm water to heat the pot and then put 6 orange tea bags and boiling water in it to steep. Daddy and Grampie placed little blue tea cups (cups we'd bought in Little Havana for espresso and never used!) on the big wooden table. I found little silver teaspoons (where and why we bought these i can't recall) that Addie placed next to each teacup. "These are my size," My 3-year old granddaughter commented as she carefully placed one by each of the tiny teacups. My older granddaughter distributed the Valentine's Day napkins I had bought last year and never used. I brought over very homemade sugar cookies. All sorts cookies in a variety of heart-like shapes, topped with crazy decorations (Including red and green Christmas sprinkles) graced our table. With honey in the bottom of our little tea cups and steaming orange tea filling them to the brim and nearly overflowing, we had a little Valentine's Day tea party and talked about what we loved about each other. Well we did that for one round and the rest of the time we enjoyed cookies and laughed :)

Real men make pink hear-shaped pancakes for their grandkids on the Sunday morning before Valentine's Day. Real men enjoy a tea party with homemade sugar cookies, decorated with Christmas sprinkles. This is what Valentine's Day is all about in my book :)