Pepper Kisses

One of my fondest memories was of my grandpa's infamous pepper kisses. Upon returning from work each day with a coveted gift of a bag of pretzels, my grandpa would clutch us closely and rub his unshaven cheek to ours...pepper kisses! We dreaded them, but we loved them too!

I never thought I'd be able to pass those pepper kisses on to my children...gratefully so, since I lacked facial hair (for now!). But since being bald and retaining some prickly stubble, I can happily report that my children and husband have now, too, been the reluctant recipients of many pepper kisses. Josef, for one, actually asks for them, only to giggle madly as he pretends to fight me off.

Since completing chemo, my pepper kiss prickle is giving way to duckling kiss fuzz and I find myself grateful for this moment in time that I'm quite certain my grandpa in Heaven had so much to do with....