Love for the Holidays: For Nicole
This time of year always reminds me of family. The beautiful thing about family is that you’re born with some members and then you are blessed to have the chance to choose some members. Granted, I have some pretty amazing family members and love them to the moon and back. They’ve supported me through glorious highs and devastating lows. Yet, right along with them have been a few family members I’ve had the privilege of selecting based on my own terms.
Set the scene. Location: some random classroom in the Business Administration building at Savannah State University in Georgia. The date was January 2015. Seemed like a typical evening right before class and I was on my way to my unofficial assigned seat (if you know, you know). To my surprise, I found a beautiful young lady snugged in my space. With her books on the desk and her phone in hand, she found herself comfortable in my learning space. Needless to say, I gave her the death stare from a very unfamiliar chair I was forced to sit in across the classroom. Never in a million years did I anticipate the amount of joy that could come from a stolen chair.
The holidays for us are something special. Filled with a lot of wine, bourbon, blankets and Christmas movies. One of our favorites is Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Our favorite scene is when Kevin gives one of the turtle doves to the Pigeon Lady in Central Park. That turtle dove was a symbol of friendship and love between Kevin and the Pigeon lady. That got me to thinking… what would that look like on a plate?
Through some crafty research, I found out Nicole’s favorite holiday candy was Peppermint Bark. Never heard of it a day in my life. Come to find out it was sold in Kenwood Mall. And away I went to arrive at the shop and found the last four bars of Peppermint Bark awaiting me. I snatched those up and behold our Peppermint Bark Cheesecake was born. Inspired by a beautiful queen that I once cherished as a friend and now hold as my soulmate. I cannot think of a better combination of friendship, love and warmth right in time for the holidays.
