S’mores In The Darkness
In the Portage Bay/Montlake area of Seattle where we live, the electricity rarely goes out. But when it does, making lemonade out of lemons is just the ticket for a somewhat frightened little girl and her puzzled grandpa. My five-year old granddaughter Riley was at our house after school one winter day, when suddenly the lights went out as we waited for Mommy to come pick her up.
Yes, the iPad was functional but not having lights made Riley uncomfortable so grandpa took the initiative. “Let’s make s’mores” as the adventure started and Riley’s attention turned from worry to a favored treat. But wait, we don’t have marshmallows, graham crackers or chocolate! We quickly checked City Light’s ‘outage app’ and learned that while our neighborhood had no electricity, the local market was lighted and wide open.
We jumped in the car, buckled up, and made our way to the market to fulfill our s’mores craving, not giving the outage a second thought. Not surprisingly, Riley knew exactly where the Hersey’s white chocolate bars were located, then helped grandpa find the graham crackers and marshmallows. We were set! We got in the car and headed back to our homestead as late afternoon twilight turned to darkness.
By this time Nana (Grandma Wendy) and 3-year old grandson Bennett had returned from errands to find our house dark and getting cold. When Riley and I came through the door, our announced plan to make s’mores took hold to all!
Riley knew all about making s’mores from our annual all family vacations to Seaside, Oregon, so she took the lead while grandpa started a fire in the fireplace. Meanwhile, Nana and Bennet shaped wire coat hangers to serve as marshmallow holder-roasters, as Riley carefully broke the crackers in two and placed a piece of white Hersey’s chocolate on one half of each cracker.
The fire was crackling with dry cedar, as Bennett and Riley took charge of s’mores’ making, lighted only by our fire. Nana watched in awe as grandpa and the kids carefully roasted each marshmallow over the open fire.
Nothing like s’mores with the grandkids in the darkness. We each had a s’more and prepared for round two when Mommy arrived to take the kids home. Well, we had to make a s’more for her, and a couple for the road.
Submitted for use by The Grandpa Project by Pete DeLaunay, Seattle, Washington
Feeling the love is all that’s needed! From a child’s perspective.