I am Loved...

I am loved.  I am so loved.  I am so, so loved!  You know how I know I’m loved?  Because my Aunt Shirley made me fudge.  And my friend from church made me peanut brittle.  And my other friend from church is trying to arrange a dinner party menu to suit my needs (even though I told him he shouldn’t and I absolutely mean that if you are reading this!)  And I had some yummy salsa, gluten free crackers and shrimp cocktail at a Christmas party.  And I had an entire meal at my in-laws for Christmas Eve dinner that I could eat.  And I had a ridiculous meal on New Year’s Eve that I could eat.  But mostly, because my Aunt Shirley made me fudge!

If you don’t know Aunt Shirley, then you don’t understand how amazing that is.  Each year on Christmas Eve, my dad’s side of the family gets together at my parent’s house.  It’s the one time of the year that I get to see the majority of my cousins, and we have a good time.  My aunt is an amazing cook, and is known in our circle especially for her candies.  Each year she would bring a plate of peanut butter fudge- you know, the kind of fudge that you dream about.  Lots of people make fudge, but no one makes fudge like Aunt Shirley.   And each year, Fireman Sam, The Ranger and I would fight over the leftovers.  So much so that Aunt Shirley began making each of us our own little container of it.  Sometimes it came in a disposable Tupperware container; sometimes it came in a tin-foil pan.  And sometimes we stole each other’s containers, hoarding more for ourselves. 

Aunt Shirley’s fudge was one of the things that I was whining about in my last post.  Fudge is full of all kinds of goodies that are NOT Val-friendly.  I didn’t think I’d ever get my own container again.  Then, I walked in on Christmas Eve.  Aunt Shirley was there- and she had THIS for me:

I was shocked!  I was amazed!  I was thrilled!  I was… confused.  What was she giving me?  Was I getting my hopes up, only to have them dashed when I had to hand my share of the fudge over to The Ranger?  Then I opened it and Aunt Shirley explained.  She has been reading this blog (Hi Aunt Shirley!) and checked out this fudge recipe on Gluten Free On a Shoestring’s website.  It took her two trips to town to do it, but she found the ingredients and she made me fudge.  No diary, no gluten, no eggs.  Just love.  Oh, and chocolate and peanut butter!

So, is it truly Aunt Shirley’s fudge?  Not the original recipe, no.  But it was a container of fudge from my Aunt who loves me, and that’s all I needed.  I have talked about this before- it’s not the fact that she gave me fudge; it’s the fact that she cared enough to try to give me fudge.  It’s not easy to feed me, so when someone attempts to do so, I know they care.  So the peanut brittle, the salsa, the meal planning, the Christmas eve and New Year’s meals?  They are all big, warm fuzzy hugs to me.  Mmmm, big, peanut-buttery, chocolatey hugs....  I am so, so, so loved.