A Tree Of Happiness Brings Ice Cream Memories

This is such a beautiful award and the sentiment is so touching too. Each day when I pray, I ask God to grant me happiness. I figure that if I am happy, then all else is falling into place in my life. If I am happy, I am likely to be healthy, have enough food on the table at least for today, have at least my basic needs met. If I am happy, then all is well. This award, given to me by Tartasacher at Mil Postres, is a wish for my happiness.

The rules of this award are to share 6 things which bring us happiness and to share this award with 6 other bloggers. As usual, link to the person who gave you the award and link to the people you are giving the award to.

Since right now I have desserts on my mind and it is a very hot day, I will tell you that ice cream has brought me much happiness over the years, both in eating it and in remembering the special occasions when I shared ice cream with people near and dear to me. Which also reminds me to put in a little shameless -- in fact quite proud -- plug for my Ice Cream Recipe Round Up. Click on the link if you don't already know what it is about.

• One of my earliest memories of ice cream, is going out with my dad in the dead of winter, in the dark and in the snow of Paris to our neighborhood Armenian mom and pop grocery store for a container of coffee and vanilla ice cream packaged in styrofoam to keep it from melting. I still love to savor ice cream in the middle of winter. It may be cold, but it is also heart warming!
• When I was about four years old, I was so sick that I was sent by my pediatrician to the Vosges mountains to get plenty of fresh air to recuperate. While there, the hotel-restaurant owners were so in love with me that I was allowed all the ice cream I could eat and after about two weeks of a twice-daily dose of strawberry ice cream (one cone after lunch and one after dinner), my little recovering tummy went on a strawberry ice cream strike. I learned to switch flavors from time to time, but strawberry is still one of my favorites.
• My uncle came to pick up my mom and me from that convalescence trip back to Paris. We stopped by the city of Plombieres. It is famous for its specialty ice cream! Plombieres ice cream is vanilla with bits of candied fruit mixed in, but that's a bit like saying Disney is famous for a mouse. It doesn't get any better than Plombieres ice cream in the city of Plombieres, especially when you are eating it with your favorite uncle in the whole wide world and you haven't seen him in months.
• All my relatives knew that no bowl of ice cream was too big for Joy! When I was about 8 years old, my paternal grandfather gave me a challenge. He said he had found an ice cream shop where the ice cream glasses were so tall and so large, he thought that even I would not be able to finish. I accepted that challenge! Off we went to the shop. I ordered my favorite flavors with lots and lots of whipped cream and several cherries on top! My grandpa did not order any. My grandma did not order any. My own parents did not order any. They were all waiting to eat my leftovers which I quite positively assured them I would not have. Then, the gargantuan ice cream came to our table. My grandpa asked me if I were still up to the challenge. I was no longer quite so sure, but knowing that I had never in my entire life had too much ice cream, I figured I would be able to finish this one too. Even with the help of both of my grandparents and both of my parents, we were not able to finish that ice cream, but we were all quite satisfied and quite happy!
• When I was in college, several people tried to set me up with the same young man. He later became my husband, so it worked. As we were both journalism majors, we were both working for several of the local weekly newspapers. The editor of one of them, not yet realizing we even knew each other, put us on the tastiest story of my life. We were to review all the ice cream shops in town -- together! We were quite happy for this bit of undercover investigative reporting!
• My paternal grandfather used to make his own ice creams -- without an ice cream maker. He would put his homemade cream into the freezer, and he would stir, stir, stir and return it to the freezer. After much patience, he would serve us fabulous ice cream made with lots of love. I later learned to make my own too, but with an ice cream maker. It brought me happiness to think of him each time I would make ice cream. Ice cream making brought me more happiness and fond memories, when it was time to pass the torch on to our son. He had so much happiness -- even glee -- learning how to make his own ice cream that cranking that handle round and round still has not become a chore for him. It is such a time of happiness!!

And now, ... drum roll ... the winners of the Tree Of Happiness Award are:

1. Miguel @ Cosas de Luismi e Isa
   
2. Tamy @ 3 Sides of Crazy
3. ames @ yay pie!
4. Grace @ Grace Today
5. Robin @ Around The Island
6. Kathy @ The Empty Nest

May this little Tree of Happiness Award bring you some well deserved happiness.

You have just received the tree of happiness. It is scarcely a small plant, which depends on you to grow firmly and strongly. Plant it on your heart, water it with smiles and kindness, feel the aroma of its flowers, savour the sweetness of its fruits and protection under its shade whom you love.

JOY

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