Hey, cupcake!

Our church's youth group meets from 6:00-8:00 on Sunday evenings, which makes me want to lie down on the floor and cry. Obviously, the time was chosen with no thought whatsoever about the needs of middle-aged people to put on fuzzy slippers and pajamas and robes at around 6:00 p.m. on a Sunday and sit reading their books with a bowl of stove-popped popcorn on their laps. No thought AT ALL.

I wish Meelyn and Aisling could take themselves to youth group, but the trip to our church involves fifteen minutes of interstate driving and I'm just not sure how I feel about allowing Meelyn -- who is a very cautious and responsible driver -- on the freeway by herself. She's been driving us everywhere for more than a year now (in fact, she drives on the interstate with me in the vehicle with her all the time) and she drives to work by herself - in fact, she and Aisling are out right now returning a pair of shoes at Shoe Carnival and getting Aisling's bangs cut.

But the interstate. Without me. With Aisling...

Sooo, I am driving them to youth group on Sunday evenings. My husband has agreed that he will come with me too since our Friday-night-dates-to-Bob Evans have been canceled out by the economy.

Last week's meeting was a showing of the movie Bella and I couldn't help but notice that the only snack available was microwave popcorn. I have some opinions about microwave popcorn, the least emphatic of which is that it is a soulless food meant only to be eaten by busy teachers who need some thing for lunch that is easy to pack, easy to prepare, and can be consumed while grading papers.

So I asked the adult leaders of the youth group, Dave, Tammy and Tim, what the arrangements were for snacks. Tammy said doubtfully, "Well, we just kind of grab something to bring in...."

Well. Well. My opinion of that is that if you are the kind of person who is willing to give up your Sunday evening (slippers, pajamas, bathrobe, popcorn) to go entertain and evangelize teenagers, it should not be incumbent upon you to also provide a snack. It just shouldn't. Things should be made easy for you so that you'll have the will to keep on doing what you're doing, feeling appreciated and affirmed by the other adults - the ones who would rather be smartly slapped in the head with a dead fish than give up their Sunday evenings, re: see above.

So I offered to bring cupcakes this week because Dave, Tammy and Tim shouldn't have to and also because food is a very important part of any gathering. If you have good food, people will come. They may come if your food is sub-standard or even non-existent, but there won't be that pleasant sense of anticipation of a good time spent with friends AND FOOD.

I'm not entirely certain why this is, but I have it on good authority that even skinny people feel this way.

This evening is my snack-preparing debut. I am sending thirty cupcakes, half iced with milk chocolate frosting and topped with those cute little pumpkin candies, the other half topped with Halloween Funfetti icing and a piece of candy corn. Plus orange sugar sprinkles.

******************

Okay. We're home from youth group now and I had a brain wave and decorated a dozen cupcakes with half-Halloween Funfetti and half-milk chocolate frosting and then topped them with autumn sprinkles in brown, red, orange and yellow. They all looked too cute in the white bakery box I bought at the Party House.

Youth group attendance was pretty low tonight because of all the kids sick with the flu, so out of thirty-five cupcakes, only twenty-four were eaten, so my husband has some to take in to work tomorrow. Fun!

Now I have to think of something cheap to make for next week's meeting. I may end up regretting this sudden burst of Christian generosity. Ack.