Nightly ice cream runs have been a Callahan family staple since I can remember.
So when Braum's built a location literally seconds away from our house, it solidified itself as the ultimate choice in ice cream. Well, except for the brief time we were all really into Sonic's rootbeer frosties.
About the same time every night we'd all pile into the Callahan minivan of the moment in whatever haphazard pajama pairings we happened to be wearing; bringing blankets, reading material and stuffed animals with us for the four minute roadtrip.
An unexplainable Christmas morning excitement would always fill the pit of my stomach: the silent Edmond night, familiarity, an endless selection of ice cream before me illustrated with fuzzy 1980s photography, the incomparable warmth and safety of a family snuggled into a van, the way the world stopped.
Since my Dad is the absolute worst at taking orders (it literally overwhelms him to a point of hysteria) we'd all huddle around the open window screaming out our overlapping, individual wants: small cookies and cream milkshake, frozen yogurt twist in a small cake cone, diet coke (my mom's eternally boring order), peanut butter cup, two scoops chocolate chip and one scoop banana pecan!
These once nightly trips are very rare now, but they are sort of what I always look forward to the most around holidays or the summertime window of time when we're all back together. And why Braum's is my favorite, with that extra scoop of nostalgia.
