Bittersweet

We must not forget the girls' teachers this holiday season. During the week, they end up spending more time with Kate & Sarah than we do. So tonight, we made peppermint bark for them, and we'll deliver them tomorrow in these cute little flower pots (props, Cindy!).

Traffic was a Nightmare Before Christmas coming from my office in Mall Land, so I arrived home later than planned. Knowing I needed to bring the pots filled with peppermint bark in tomorrow, I set straight to work on the goodies. It's difficult, though, to simply crank out treats in our kitchen without the aid of the kitchen assistants. Even if you really try. The peppermint bark requires little candies...and you must smash the candies. The kitchen assistants most definitely could not resist that. When Kate saw what I was undertaking with my rolling pin (a good bit of smashing) she sang out "I'll get mine!" and grabbed the mini rolling pin I bought for the girls to share a few weeks ago. She joyfully wielded her rolling pin, nearly smashing my hands while zealously pounding the star mints to sweet, sparkly powder. Sarah felt the smashing was much too noisy. She did, however, think the shards of candy were tasty. Once it was all over but the unwrapping, I made them march upstairs to bed with their Dad so I could get some real work done. But I missed them when they'd gone.
I love the kitchen assistants. Today I learned that a co-worker, who'd gone to the hospital for an early delivery of what was supposed to be her January infant, lost her baby. Worse, she nearly lost her own life and the latest news was that she'd been stabilized but was still in ICU. I hardly thought of anything else all day. I vacillated between crying at the thought of her going home to an empty nursery (or not at all) and reflecting on my outstanding, ridiculous, extremely good fortune. Tonight, while Kate & Sarah smashed candy and giggled and ate what had already been carefully measured for the recipe (sorry teachers, your mint's a hair shy), I still thought of my colleague and how a scene like this should have been in her near future. The girls, at least, got a lot of extra hugs and kisses, even though we were all very sticky. I hate to bring you down, but I'm hoping, internets, that you'll take just a moment to send good thoughts in the general direction of the ATL for my co-worker and her family for a speedy recovery and perhaps a night of making treats for teachers with their own kitchen assistants sometime very soon...