"No matter what you've done for yourself or for humanity, if you can't look back on having given love and attention to your own family, what you have really accomplished?"-Elbert Hubbard
Aunt Bebo. Growing up, I would beg to go see Aunt Bebo, Uncle Chris, Heather, and Zachary. Since Uncle Chris was in the Air Force, I got the experience of ‘being on base.’ To me, that was just about the coolest thing I could brag to my friends about. I always had the best time. I got to sit on a fire truck, look at airplanes, visit Six Flags Astro World, bake, play board games, act silly at the park, shop at the mall… It was always a fun-filled time when I went to Aunt Bebo’s and a sad, teary-eyed day when it was time to leave. Inevitably, I got older and my friends took center stage. My visits to Aunt Bebo’s house finally ceased. By the time I was a freshman in college, I regretted not making it to her house every spring break and made it a point to visit her Gatesville, Texas home. Although I didn’t get to go back and brag about being on base this time, I had just as much fun as I always did.
As my cousins have consistently grown our family with babies galore every year, I’ve had the opportunity to try to be an “Aunt Bebo.” The very first of all the babies was Ashlynn. I was still in high school when she was born, but I was thrilled to have a baby in the family. Amanda would occasionally let me babysit and I always tried to provide an action packed adventure complete with playing dress up and making a disaster with make-up. Ashlynn soon had brother, Trenton, and then finally a baby sister, Katelynn. Ashlynn is all grown up now, and Trenton does like playing dress up, so Katelynn is the object of my affection. She is a natural-born Miss Priss and I love it!
On the agenda for her most recent visit: go to the park, make pizza, bake brownie ice cream cones, play-dough sculptures, and dress up, of course. Our energy levels are equivalent; 90-to-nothing/ non-stop. I’d say it was about 8:30 p.m. before we got around to starting our dessert recipe. Katelynn, as always, did a perfect job cracking the eggs, pouring in the ingredients, stirring it all together and then licked the spoon, the bowl, and any other utensil coated in brownie batter.
Uh oh! I forgot ice cream cones… one of the key presentation ingredients for our project. About the time we were pulling out of the garage, my friend Jeremy was pulling in the driveway. “Oh my word, Jeremy! We have to go to David’s and get ice cream cones.” In the quarter-mile commute from my house to the store, it was clear that Katelynn’s night and entire life was going to be ruined if we didn’t get those ice cream cones, pronto! I whipped into the David’s Grocery Store parking lot, only to find all the lights off and not a car in sight.
Her sweet little voice rings, “does this mean we can’t make our brownie ice creams, Payton?”
Tragic!
Much to our benefit, Jeremy is a calm friend who can operate under pressure. Meanwhile, Katelynn is on the verge of tears and my heart is breaking in panic as a result. He pulls into Dairy Queen parking lot. As Katelynn and I wait in the car, I get angry. How could he stop for food at a time like this? Mean. Selfish. Inconsiderate. Typical man. He returns the car with a single sack and hands it to me to hold. Being the nosey person that I am, I peeked in the bag. “Jeremy! What is this?” I asked. “Twelve ice cream cones, cut the ice cream.”
Hero of the day!
The brownie ice cream cones turned out to be the prettiest recipe thus far. Katelynn left me souveniers of our creation everywhere; the kitchen chairs, the place mats, the rug, the floor, the cabinets. I feel certain I’ll be finding chocolate for months.
Lesson Learned: I’m never too old to escape to Aunt Bebo’s. Amanda has her hands full with the my sweet KK. My friends are the very best.
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