Candle-Eating and Peanut Butter-Banana Burgers

Saturday was a double celebration of Mother’s Day and Steve’s 68th birthday, which was last Tuesday.

Everyone pitched in to bring food.  Sarah had made a cucumber, olive oil, tomato, and feta cheese salad, and ten minutes after walking into the house, she said, “Oh, no.  I left my salad at home!”

We had most of the ingredients on hand, so Gage and Madi ran to the nearby grocery store to pick up the remaining items so Sarah could quickly remake them.  To save time, she told them to just start driving, and she would text them what she needed.  In addition to the things they were expecting to buy, she also added honey peanut butter, and bananas.  Gage was having a difficult time imagining how those were going to go into the salad, but he did as requested.

As it turns out, Meagan had remembered a burger she and Nathan had recently eaten, stuffed with honey peanut butter and banana; they loved it and wanted to recreate it. They made an additional “tasting burger” that could be cut up into pieces so everyone could have a bite to see if they liked it. I’ll have to say it was better than I thought.

Here is Nathan, the peanut butter-banana burger salesman.

They spread out the meat very thin and then wrapped it around the stuffing and made a bundle out of it.  It’s always fun to try something new.

Nathan is a great grill master.

After lunch . . .

Noah helped me put the 6 and the 8 on the cake. At first, he put them on to say 86 and then quickly changed them.  He said, “I don’t want Grandpa to be that old yet because I want him to be around a long time.”  So sweet.

We did the usual singing as we carried in the cake, and Steve blew out the two candles.

But then, Steve did something that none of us were expecting.  He pulled one of the candles out of the cake and asked the little guys if he should eat it.

They were delightfully horrified by the thought.

As were the rest of us–especially when he actually bit off half of the candle and pretended like he was chewing.

When Steve had elicited all the laughs possible, he spat out the crumbles of wax to further laughter and applause before saying, “Well, at least it tasted better than peanut butter-banana hamburgers!”

Then it was time for gift opening.

As soon as he started, the grands said, “You have to throw the paper over your shoulder like great grandpa used to do!” Grayson got confused with the whole grandpa and great-grandpa bit, so he just decided to refer to Great Grandpa Smith as, “Old Fashioned Grandpa.”

And then, for reasons unfathomable, he started calling Steve, “Uncle Grandpa.” I love how kids’ minds work.

One of the things the four adult children got him was a shirt that says, “It takes a real man to walk a Yorkie.” That should garner him some smiles out in the neighborhood.

Since Gage works part-time at Trader Joe’s, his gifts always consist of fabulous TJ’s items.  (Not pictured is some olive bread.) Delicious gift-giving.

Before and after the meal . . .

there was the usual artwork activity going on. Usually, Gage is in the thick of it, but this time Madi was working on her own project.  I love seeing their creativity.

And speaking of creativity, Gage made a card for Steve that featured an airplane. So cool!

There was one more thing to celebrate . . .

that I didn’t even think about until after everyone had left. Saturday was Sarah’s 23rd year since her diagnosis with Neuroblastoma IV.  I was reminded when I came across a FB memory with a graphic I made remembering her 20th anniversary.

This Thursday, she and Gage will celebrate four years of marriage, so they have a double reason to be grateful during this particular week of May.

For them and for all of us, I’m glad we never have to wait for Thanksgiving to practice thanksgiving. It’s an everyday, every minute kind of thing.

Even during the hardest times, tiny thankgsivings have a way of popping up their heads and drawing our attention.

Things as small as candle-eating, unusual hamburgers, and family laughter.  Things as large as a daughter who has outlived every dire prediction pronounced over her life and is living a life of faith and love with the husband God brought into her life.

I’m  thankful for the stories in our family, and for the time to gather around a table to celebrate birthdays, to celebrate moms, and to celebrate the goodness and mercy that follow us all the days of our lives.

What about you?

Do you have any unusual burger (or other food) combinations?
Do you like graphic t-shirts? What’s your favorite one?
What’s a tiny (or large) thanksgiving that has popped up in your life lately?