Chocolate Breakfast

Happy Valentine's Day friends! Regardless of your personal opinion of this holiday, it's a wonderful opportunity to remember to tell our loved ones just how much they mean to us. For families, it's also the perfect opportunity to create new family traditions - simple ideas that when done over the years become the fiber of memories for our children that will be passed down to their children.

Around the Hendey house, we traditionally celebrate Valentine's Day with "Chocolate Breakfast". Granted, this blog post won't be filed under the "nutrition and fitness" category, but it's ok to make exceptions every once in a while, right? Chocolate breakfast started about five years ago, when we had a Valentine's Day where Dad would be absent, working a shift in the ER. We decided to celebrate early, and a tradition was born. In those days, my kids were early morning risers, so they always had plenty of time before school. Nowadays, waking sleepy teenagers is a challenge, and inviting them to get up even earlier to enjoy family breakfast is a little dicey. So I was happy this morning when both boys woke up with smiles on their faces and joined Greg and I at the table for a celebration of familial love.

Chocolate breakfast is simple fare - chocolate milk (served in wine goblets, of course) and whatever types of decadent offerings I find at the grocery bakery the day before the celebration. In the past, it featured frozen chocolate chip waffles, chocolate bagels, or muffins. Today, we had "lava cakes" with rich fudge oozing out the top. A sign of my boys' maturity is the fact that they limited themselves on their chocolate intake and that Eric chose OJ over chocolate milk or hot cocoa. My gifts were the hugs and the special "thanks for breakfast mom" comments that I received as they strode off to the shower.

Family traditions are wonderful things - they don't have to cost a lot or be a big deal - they just have to come wrapped in love. The wonderful thing about Chocolate Breakfast is that the good feelings you receive in those pre-dawn hours keep you warm the whole day long, and that's a great way to celebrate!