The Mom Dance

Wednesday Night Dinner

I'm so thankful for family traditions.  I'm not much of a traditions girl in general because so many of them in our society seem empty to me.  I like following tradition if I find meaning and reason within them.

Going to Grandma's house once a week for dinner was one of the best things you've ever done for us.  The sense of family that we gained from that was so crucial to our development.  I find huge comfort in traditions like that.  I only want to have kids if i can have Wednesday night dinners with you.  Dinners in which you must make Grandma Bread.

Waking Up To Chocolate

The best Saturday mornings were the ones in which I'd walk downstairs sleepy eyed to find a pot of Cocoa Wheats cooking on the stove.

Drop in a little peanut butter, put some toast on the side and you have a perfect weekend breakfast.

Grandma Bread

Do I really always talk about food on here?

You know me... I don't even eat that much!  But I guess there are some foods that are just so important because they're so tightly wound in our fondest memories.

One of the food staples of my youth:

Grandma Bread

The best part of that is that no one knows exactly what that is!  Bread, made weekly (or more than once a week, depending on if our family of bread devouring beasts was coming over) in the bread maker that occasionally walked itself off the counter to meet its fate.

Luckily, you learned how to make this bread to keep the tradition alive.  I guess it means I will have to get a bread maker eventually too!  Another thing you have on your list of things to teach me.

And I think we should experiment.  Chocolate chip bread?  Straight up chocolate bread?  Cinnamon sugar built right into the bread?  Asiago cheese bread?  If that much bread is so wrong... then I don't wanna be right.

Perfect Snow Day

All the snow is melting around here right now.
Finally!

Which reminds me to think back on the best thing about snow in the first place.  Snow Days.  I remember back in Elementary school when we'd have snow days - sometimes a few in a row (Alpena!!) - it was as if the heavens had opened and shined their light upon me.  "You mean... I get to stay at home ALL DAY and play in the snow and come inside and get warm and watch movies and play dress-up?  For real?  Bring on the snow!".

One of the coolest things you used to do that made me feel so loved was on these days.  Bree and I would be playing outside in the snow, vigorously building replication igloos and throwing ice chunks at each other.  Snow was crusted into our hair, our socks, our feet were wet and our faces were red.  Runny noses and numb toes didn't stop our adventures.  When we finally surrendered to the cold (or one of us made the other cry with an ice chunk to the head) and headed inside...there was sometimes a surprise waiting.  Ever so simple yet it made such an impact on me.  HOT COCOA was already ready as we walked in the door.  I couldn't believe how much our mom loved us that she'd be ready to warm us up before we were even out of our boots!!

And sometimes we'd even get buttered toast with it.  Mmm.

Now sometimes, on a snowy day, I'll fix up some hot cocoa and toast with butter just to have that warm cozy feeling again.  Without the chunks of snow in my hair, of course.

Our Neighbor The Queen

Remember when we lived ACROSS THE STREET from a Dairy Queen?

That would be SO hard to do while on a diet.  Geez.

I remember you'd always get:

 

And I'd always get:

Chicken Stew

Seriously, Mom, your chicken stew.

I think that of all meals, that is the one that tastes like "home" the most.  I've never had it anywhere else and I don't think anyone could make it the same way you do.  It's just one of those things that only one's mom can do.

The next time we are together, I think we should make it together so you can teach me how to make it perfectly.  It is an art form I'd like to learn.  And then, after years of practice, maybe one day I will be able to make it as deliciously as you do!

Maybe.

=)