Popcorn + late night + toothpaste = happiness
When I was little and my cousins, sister, and I were all at my grandma’s house, it often felt like the happiest place on earth (when we all weren’t fighting, of course). Today I get to share with you another great memory involving popcorn, late nights, and toothpaste.
After a long day of playing outside, and covering ourselves with a fine layer of dirt, my grandma would give us all bubble baths. After baths we would climb into our jammies, snuggle up on the couch, and watch a movie. (On REALLY special nights we would all sleep in the living room and watch some 80’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Tom and Jerry.) We would all be completely zoned out by whatever we were watching, and then that beautiful smell would come wafting out of the kitchen. We would hear the loud pop of the air popper, the beep from the microwave, meaning the butter was melted, and the shaking of salt and butter in a tub completely covering each individual piece of popcorn (and sometimes there were extra buttery ones that got a little too covered; those were my favorite). Grandma would bring in a couple plastic ice cream buckets full of popcorn, take one to my grandpa, and then come and sit with us.
Once popcorn was finished, and bedtime loomed (usually after Power Puff Girls at ten ‘o clock) she would scoot us into the bathroom, make us brush our teeth, and then send us all upstairs to bed. She would follow soon after, tuck us in, and read us a story. Once the story was over she turned off the lights, headed downstairs, and left us, full of love (and food), to think about the day. To think about the fun we had and the fun tomorrow would bring. But, mostly what I felt, was happiness. The fresh feeling of the bath. The warm feeling of the popcorn. And the cool feeling of the toothpaste.