To My Groom . . . 15 Months Later

In honor of Valentine's Day, here is a brief tale of homage to my beloved groom:

One of the first things I learned about Josh was his love/obsession for football. I made a lucky move at a critical point in our early dating relationship when I suggested we go to a park and throw a football around, and I credit this moment for spawning a mutual twitterpation. I think his twitterpation stemmed from (1) the fact that I said the word "football," and (2) my pathetic/endearing but dogged attempts to throw a spiral, while mine probably had more to do with his forearms rippling in the moonlight, or something like that. And that he didn't laugh at the throws that weren't spirals, which were most of them. And that the cherry blossoms were in full swing, and it was spring . . . something along those lines.

When Josh was overseas during our engagement, I sometimes wondered which he missed more: me, or the college football season. During our first fall as a married couple, I spent my Saturdays listening to middle-aged men on TV excitedly spout phrases like "true freshman" and "play-maker," and learned to memorize the same four inane commercials that ESPN 3 recycles about every five minutes.

The point being, Josh loves football.

So four months before my wedding, I bought a football cake pan, thinking I would "have time" the night before we got married to bake and decorate a groom's cake for Josh. Ha. In reality, I spent the night before my wedding having various breakdowns about whether or not we had enough utensils for the reception or trying to getting peach bows tied on the lanterns, and I didn't even have time to start packing for my honeymoon until around midnight. So the football groom's cake didn't happen . . . until . . .

. . . Superbowl Sunday, 2012 (almost 15 months to the day after our wedding), when I finally decided it was time to follow through on what I'd started. So in honor of the last official day of the football season, Josh finally got his groom's cake, and here it is:


Happy Valentine's Day to all, and especially to my football-loving true love. And yes, Jack already has some BYU football attire purchased and ready for wear (thank you, Jen!).

*You may be wondering about my attire in the above picture. I have my thoughtful mother-in-law Shigeko to thank for what I like to call my "culinary surgical costume." It's a full-body Japanese chef's apron, and it even covers my great-with-child belly. She gave it to me for Christmas this year, and it has already saved many an outfit from the inevitable cooking-while-pregnant destruction (my belly ends up in everything). It is especially visually effective when I am carving a roast or chopping vegetables with large sharp knives.

Also, as a bonus and tribute to another of Josh's endearing obsessions, here is the batman cake I made for Josh's mighty 30th birthday a few weeks ago. Hooray for holidays and celebrations!