What is the meaning of "with big hugs and kisses" in the following sentence (source: UP, UP AND AWAY Susie),
"At the arrival area, Susie and her parents pick up their luggage.
Susie watches all the different suitcases ride along the carousel.
"Here come ours!" she shouts. They find Susie's grandparents waiting
with big hugs and kisses. "How did you like your first ride in the
sky Susie?" they ask.
Does "They find Susie's grandparents waiting with big hugs and kisses" mean "They find that Susie's grandparents are waiting with open their arms and pushing their lips forward"?
Best Answer
"To find someone waiting" is often expressed like this:
find them waiting with open arms.
Here, the writer is being creative and substituting "big hugs and kisses" for something like "open arms".
It is not literal and it means when they came up to grandparents, the grandparents gave them kisses and hugs. To wait for someone with open arms is a cliché. Writers are supposed to avoid those. This does.