Gratitude and hot chocolate
With my mum, Rosemarie, and daughters, Lalli and Karel.
Today I’m celebrating a special day with my nearest and dearest. What better reason is there to make a nice cup of hot chocolate? Not like you need a reason in the first place!
Our drink of choice was Jacques Torres’ Wicked Hot Chocolate, a precious find of mine during my last sortie in New York’s Chelsea Market with my oldest, dearest girlfriend, Deedee. It has the perfect blend of allspice; cinnamon; ground, sweet ancho chili peppers; and smoked, ground chipotle chili peppers.
Jacques Torres' Wicked Hot Chocolate is truly wicked!
It was this sensory chocolate moment that quickly brought back other moments from the distant past — cold, rainy nights in Baguio when, given the sparse choices in the cupboard and the weather, dinner of choice for me and my kids, would be a mug of hot cocoa and generously buttered pan de suelo.
Maybe it was because I sought to make those lean meals more meaningful, or maybe it was much easier to be grateful because of what we lacked. Or perhaps it was simply because the kids were much younger then, and preferred cocoa and salted bread to veggies. But these are moments we look back on with great fondness, even to this day.
The humble Filipino pan de suelo.
As I drank the last bit of my hot chocolate, and scooped up the undissolved chocolate nibs at the bottom of my mug, tears welled in my eyes and my heart swelled with gratitude.
Gratitude for God’s steadfastness and faithfulness, and everything He has allowed us to experience, be it the good, the bad, or the ugly.
Gratitude for how far we’ve come as a family, and grown as individuals; for the increase and the abundance.
Gratitude because I could very well be having a cup of Hershey’s cocoa tonight, and it wouldn’t have made the moment any less enjoyable.
Gratitude itself is reason enough for celebration.
Here’s to more choco and cocoa moments!
“In everything, give thanks.”
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