Our extended family does Sunday dinner together a couple times a month. Because of varying church times, we meet at 2:30 Sunday afternoon. Brett and his girls go to church at 9:00. Brent and I go at noon. It was our turn to host, and the girls were all in for dessert. They had made their cookie dough on Saturday. They were home from church before we left, so the instructions were, “Bake your cookies so they are ready before we get home and please clean off the counter.” Simple and straight forward. You would think…

The roast and potatoes were in the oven. Tables were set. The plan was to get home, make gravy, warm up the green beans and we would be ready to eat. Rox and Paula had rolls and salads covered. I walked in the kitchen door about 2:05 and life was happening. Hadley was at the stove stirring something. Elle was behind her with the KitchenAid roaring. Six-year-old Noah and three-year-old Blakely were assisting. “What is going on here?” I cried.

Hadley, being the conscientious one, turned to help Elle, who, following her flight instincts, was grabbing Noah and Blakely and heading out the back door. I think that had something to do with the tone of my voice. While Hadley was approaching the mixer, the pot on the stove started boiling over. I intercepted the KitchenAid and Hadley headed back to what I learned was hot fudge. Elle had been making whipped cream, which was a new adventure for her. I pulled the splatter cover off to see what the state of the cream was but didn’t think to turn off the mixer. My black sweater was no longer just black. When I first told the story, the whipped cream was flipping everywhere when I walked in, but Elle reminded me there wasn’t much flipping until I took the splatter cover off. She doesn’t miss much.

Well, we cleaned up the hot fudge and Gramma Dot, then finished whipping the cream and got dinner ready. In the aftermath, I asked Hadley why they decided to add hot fudge and whipped cream. “Well, we wanted to surprise you.”

They did! Life is Good and so was dessert!