Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Grandma Perks

No Grandma Perks is not a person. Grandma perks are the little extra benefits of being a grandma.

Here's an email I got from Dave the other day.

"I’ve been meaning to tell you this story for about a month.

One night the kids had a handful of their friends over and they were begging and begging to go to Baskin Robbins which would have cost a fortune. To avoid the BR expenses I told them that I could make ice cream cones WAY better than Baskin Robbins by buying ingredients at the store and making them the best ice cream cones ever! They were skeptical but agreed when I told them they could go to the store with me and pick out whatever ice cream they wanted. I was feeling pretty happy with myself as we strolled down the aisle to where all the ice cream stuff is. We bought two different kinds of fancy candy, caramel, and chocolate filled ice creams in half gallon containers. We also bought chocolate sauce and some big waffle cones. I was surprised at the cost of it all when we checked out but I thought I must have saved some money although I’m still not sure.

When we got home I started taking custom orders for double and triple scoop ice cream cones packed right down to the bottom and overfilled way above the top of the rims of the sweet flavored waffle cones. To top it all off each ice cream cone was drenched in chocolate sauce to their liking. After all the work, the time it took to do the shopping, and the bill when I checked out, I was wondering if it was all worth it. But then I stood back and watched these kids happily gobbling down their treats making comments about how delicious they were without a single mention of Baskin Robbins. That is until one of the kids’ friends made a comment that made me feel so good. She said, “this is way better than Baskin Robbins.” So there I was, basking in my glory and feeling very pleased with myself when Katie replied, “Oh this is nothing compared to the ice cream cones my Grandma makes.” And the smile disappeared from my face and was replaced with a confused look as I thought about the plain little cones filled with plain chocolate or vanilla ice cream. No candy, no caramel, and no fudge built into fancy ice cream, no gigantic waffle cones, and no chocolate sauce dripping over the sides. But then I thought of the ice cream cones that my Grandma used to make and I got my smile back when I realized that she was right. There is just something special about Grandma’s ice cream cones.

Love,
Dave"

So there you have it. Completely undeserved but showered with extra credit from the ones who matter - our grandchildren.

I do know what the secret ingredient is in the cones that grandmas make though. Each and every cone is packed right down to the bottom with all the love a grandma's heart can hold.

Thanks, Dave for sharing the story with me.

4 comments:

  1. This is so true, I'm sure my kids feel the same way about your ice cream cones and I know that I vividly remember Grandma quickly making us ice cream cones before we left their house. There's nothing better. I was going to send you an email telling you how we were listening to the radio the other day and the song "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk" came on and one of the lines in it is "shut your mouth, slap your Grandma"....and, as always, Jenna said, "I don't like this song because it says slap your Grandma, and I love my Grandma. Too cute.

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  2. What a sweet story and so true. Grandmas put extra love in everything they do.

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  3. What a GREAT story! How nice and sweet of Dave to send it to you, and how nice and AWESOME of you to share it with all of us :) love it.

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  4. oh that is wonderful! Nothing like homemade ice cream cones... My grandma always used to let me add the sprinkles and I thought it was the coolest thing ever!

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