It didn’t matter that it was late. Or cold. Or that Dave wasn’t home. Or that I am completely stressed with work. Or that I had one kid with mouth of pulled teeth and another with mouth of painful metal. Or that we were all recovering from the Mommy meltdown that had been building for about a week now.
Last night we were going out for ice cream.
Thank goodness the brothers were game to come along because otherwise I would have had to kidnap them for the ride. I may be desperate but I do not do Dairy Queen alone. And last night, I needed it bad.
Going out for ice cream is a tradition I have held close from growing up. My parents would take us to the Nice ‘N Sweet shop where a nice and sweet man who looked like Mr. Hooper on Sesame Street would serve hand dipped cones and sell penny candy. I would always get the same flavor: Black Raspberry, because it was purple and how can you resist purple ice cream? But sometimes we would go to Baskin Robbins where I would choose Mint Chocolate Chip – the green kind. And when we went to Dairy Queen, it was a vanilla soft serve cone with jimmies. (Those are chocolate sprinkles for you foreigners.)
The pleasure of going out for ice cream revolves around who you’re with – and what you get.
As I drove the boys across town, I asked them the same question I always pose on the way: “What’s it going to be tonight, fellas?”
“The usual,” Noah replied.
“Mom! We don’t want the world to stop turning, do we?” asked Chase, referring to a conversation we had a few summers ago when I suggested that if they EVER varied from their standard orders, the world might actually stop spinning. This warning caused much amusement, a long discussion, and a bit of research about what might happen if the world stopped turning. (Spoiler alert: It isn’t good.) And since then, the boys have not deviated and order the exact same thing.
For Noah, a cookie dough Blizzard using chocolate ice cream
For Chase, chocolate dipped in chocolate — in a cup
For me, vanilla soft serve cone with jimmies
As we sat in the mini van enjoying our treats, I thought about how tough the last week has been, and how busy the next few weeks will be, and I watched my boys eating their ice cream and enjoying the same family tradition that I did when I was their age.
And I, for one, was glad the world would continue to spin because of us.
