Ice Cream Memories

This afternoon I took the kids to McDonald's for ice cream cones.  I'll be honest, its been a really, really long time since I've had an ice cream cone.  I'm more of a pie and cake kind of girl, so ice cream is something I usually pass on.  But it was really hot today and I thought it just sounded good.  So we all got their chocolate dipped cones.

When I bit into that cone, it was like I was transported back to hot summer afternoons as a kid, when I would walk next door to Grandma's house and she would dip me a cone of her butter pecan ice cream.  For just a second I felt like I was six years old, on her back porch, eating an ice cream cone with her instead of 32, and driving my four kids home in my minivan.  Grandma always had ice cream for cones (it always had to be in a cone.  She wouldn't hear of putting it in a cup!!!), Klondike bars or chocolate pudding pops ready for a hot summer afternoon.  I know she loved a sweet treat, but I also know she had way more goodies than she'd need for just one person.  As much as she loved a "sweet bite", she loved sharing a sweet bite with those she loved even more.  Somewhere in the archives of my childhood photo albums, there's a picture of my brother, Ethan and I, eating pudding pops on the edge of her driveway, with as much chocolate on us as what we ate.  What sweet memories they are.

The summer before she passed away, I took the kids up for a visit.  She fixed them each an ice cream cone.

All the kids thought it was great, but for Paige, it was her first ice cream cone.

 And what a treat it was!

 Although she wasn't quite sure how to eat the cone. ;)

And then seemed very surprised (and puzzled) when the ice cream began dripping from the side of the cone.

She loves me.  She loves my kids.  And oh!  How we love her.  I can't bear to write it in the past tense.  Because even though she isn't physically with us, I feel her love as if she were.  And I know the love we feel for her is just as present.

And all the memories came flooding back this afternoon...all because of an ice cream cone.