the search for delicious

I could eat him with a spoon I think, couldn't you?

The day after Valentine's Day is a special one for me. Not because I am still all caught up in the after glow of the love showered on me, but because it is the first day I am able to find chocolate cadbury eggs. I know it is ridiculous to find such joy in a lousy, mass-produced, processed candy, but really, the chocolate to candy shell ratio in these is near perfect, and this year I even found them in dark chocolate, a substance I abhorred until Nikki got me addicted this summer!

So imagine my disappointment to learn that the lunar cycles have been aligned such that Easter is in March this year. What?!?!?!?! Maybe they could have moved up Valentine's Day too, because this has seriously cut down the season for cadbury egg eating. I know, with the amount of preservatives in them they could probably last all year long, but for me, their flavor is enhanced by the anticipation of Easter, that, and if I ate them all year long I am certain I would begin to look like one even more than I currently do. Maybe the alignment of the planets is God's way of telling me to go on a diet :)

So, with cadbury eggs out of the question for what should have been 3 more weeks, my quest for the delicious must be rerouted. Here is what I found:



The great glass wall at the Georgia aquarium, much more beautiful when experienced from the perspective of J, my 5 year old nephew battling autism, who cracks me up with his sly wit and melts my heart when he runs to me and clings unabashedly because for a split second he has mistaken me for his mom, and who loves fish (and based on my hugs those split seconds, loves his mom too) like I love cadbury eggs.


The enthusiasm of Ellie, who believes in her heart of hearts that the Easter Bunny just knew she was going to be playing Nancy Drew with her cousins and brought her a Nancy Drew coat, never considering that it was just coincidentally cute. Bigger than life Ellie who bought her teacher a rose with her own money for her birthday this week.



The giggles of cousins sleepovers, Mike and his family from Texas joined by Holly's children, all 11 of them playing and running and eating and egg hunting and squirming and squinting when it's time for Easter pictures. And all of them sad when the party is over. But none sadder than me, Auntie Mel, who would take any of them, or better yet, all of them, any day.


The wonder that she is not offended when people tell her she looks like me, though her beauty pales mine in comparison. She still admires me, and is immune to the body image based world. When she looks in the mirror, she likes what she sees, I hope it lasts forever. . .


The feeling of abundance when the yard is covered, the mommies have packed and planned and the daddies have hidden, and now it is time for the children to hunt for eggs. There is so much that for one brief moment, each is feeling so lucky with her own basket that no one is worried about how much the others got. A feeling I wish we could replicate in the adult world. A feeling that sits better in your stomach even than cadbury eggs.


The silliness of a boy wearing a lego box for a hat. He is desperately attempting to recreate Evan Almighty, taking spare wood in the backyard to build his ark, offering the most heart felt sincere prayers to God that he can change the world (which his four year old brain equates with building the Ark) and opening his eyes afterward, excitedly bursting out "did He say yes?"

So, does the food create the taste or is it the eating of the food, the smell, the pretty plates, the company? Either which way, when I look really close I find it outside of a wrapper, the part of my life I want to savor, the delicious.