Best Grandpa Hands Down, A Procrastination Story

You are probably wondering what this is all about. Well, in my family we have a saying "if you can't send it on the right day PROCRASTINATE"! Well, that is not "our" family motto, just "some" of my wonderful children/adult's. But, you know, procrastination is sometimes a good thing, like yesterday, my wife and I received a box from our mailperson "PC" (as my youngest daughter announced last night) and my wife and I both looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders, then my youngest explained what this acronym meant "Politically Correct", Anyway, it was very heavy and it looked similar to the boxes we would receive from my oldest daughter for Christmas around May. "Well, if you had three children under the age of 8, you would procrastinate too", she would say. Well, hmmmm, we did and sadly enough we did :-(. (that is not a wart on the bottom of my smile, that is a period for the end of the sentence. :-) Back to my story, When we opened the box, it was gifts from Mother's/Father's Day and our Birthdays all in one box, It was only 4 months late, oh well, hmmmm sound familiar? My daughter sent my wife her favorite perfume which was very expensive, (she mistakenly left the tag on) also a beautiful English tea service, with some the old castle from English history. Some reading material and a copy of her "most favorite" DVD of all time "Phantom of the Opera" and she melted right there in front of me. She was now complete! Well it was my turn; I got my favorite Cologne- oh yes!!! I was out of it 2 months ago and really like it. Also, canister of Old fashioned Filled hard Candies, you know the kind that you see around at Christmas. Hmmmm (maybe this was a late gift or maybe an early one), some reading material and then I spotted it, a glimmer of a piece of white cloth, I thought at first what an odd piece of packing material. I pulled it out and opened it up and with great emotion turned to my wife, I almost started to cry. In front of me was this most amazing T-shirt which said, "Best Grandpa Hands Down" and it had my three (3) grandchildren's names, handprints and ages. Well, talk about meltdown; I was a puddle on the floor. I put it on right away. Talk about having your grandchildren right next to you. It was wonderful. I have not seen them for about three years, basically because they lived in Wisconsin and with timing and all and the expense of the flights now. Here they were, right here next to my heart. What a happy moment, my wife took my picture and we sent an email to my daughter. I wore it all day, with pride. That evening my wife said "you have to take it off, you can't sleep in it". I reluctantly removed it and laid it on the back of my computer chair, where it rest right now. Well, I hope that I didn't bore you with this "short/long" story, but it was such a precious act of procrastination.

This next recipe is in honor of my oldest daughter. It is Split Pea Soup, or as they affectionately use to call it; “Spit, Pea, Poop"! Since when or budget was tight back then, which it was a lot, we ate this a lot.

My wife's their Mom's Split Pea Soup

Ingredients:
1 bag Split peas
Ham chunks, hocks or bacon, it depended on our $$ at the time.
2 Carrots, sliced
2 Celery stalks, cut up, without tops
1 med. Onion, chopped
Salt to taste

Directions:
Follow the directions on the bag, adding the above ingredients, at the start. Cook until thick then serve hot at the table with fresh (store bought) bread, (buttered) and folded in half, for dipping into the soup. And, of course MILK!

This is a very simple dinner; it covers all of the basics. It is one that I love today; too bad our children haven't touched it since they left home. :-(.