On Nanaimo Bars...
We just arrived at our dear friends' house, after a long day of driving. It's so funny what I think of as do-able for driving these days. Eight hours in the car with the kids? No problem. When I was younger I thought that Vancouver was incredibly far away from us and it was only an hour away.
Anyways, I remembered that the song that Paul has been watching and listening to is called "On This Lovely Day" and I remembered this at 6:30 in the morning when the baby kicked me awake and I couldn't get back to sleep at all. YaYa eventually woke up and started calling my name and so I brought her into bed with me and she made happy little humming noises into my neck while Chinua occasionally made annoyed noises behind me like he does when the kids are too close for comfort while he's waking up. But the scene is one of the ones where St. Francis is sitting in a field with animals all around him, lovingly contemplating beauty and peace.
One more thing. I made Nanaimo Bars for the first time, and the story behind this is that I haven't had homemade Nanaimo Bars since the year that my mom made them ahead of time for Christmas and froze them. And I ate them all. I mean, I really ate them ALL. I ate every single one, before she ever brought them out. I must have been about eleven? Twelve? I really can't remember, but I do remember that I bought my parents a box of chocolates to try to make up for it and guess what. I ATE THEM TOO. I don't know why they didn't leave me on the side of the road somewhere.
Did I ever write about when Chinua and I were first married and we were playing SIMS at his family's house in Detroit? On the game we were a nice little married couple and we got a call asking if we wanted to adopt a baby, so we said yes. But, lo and behold, once we had a baby our little simulated people didn't have any time to eat or sleep or have fun and they threw fits at us when we wanted them to do simple things like go to the bathroom, so they would just pee on the floor. After some discussion, we decided that the only thing for us was to put the baby on the lawn, as far away from the house as we could. After a few days the Social Worker came and got him and yelled at us, but we didn't care because our fun meters were up again.
They actually trust people like us with children. But the thing is, in real life your fun meters can be down, and you don't have time for showers and you hold your pee for way too long so the kids can finish eating, and sometimes you have no money for anything but diapers but you just keep swimming, just keep swimming and eventually everything turns out okay and God gives you a way to have your fun meters recharged, like letting you come and stay here at this beautiful house on Christmas Eve with nice treats left out for you. The babies don't ever get put on the lawn. Although sometimes bedtime feels a bit like the lawn. And all this to say, wow. Another one. I know someday a few years from now life will get a little bit more normal... maybe.
And all that to say that Nanaimo Bars are a beautiful Christmas treat that we have in Canada and you all should get on the Internet and get a recipe for them for next Christmas because as soon as I made them I thought, boy oh boy these are good and I really could eat another whole pan. Again. But it's like SIMS and real life. Now I live in real life and self control is a big part of real life so I am totally content with just one or two. Merry Christmas everyone. Jesus is real and as one of my favorite carols says "the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn..."
Anyways, I remembered that the song that Paul has been watching and listening to is called "On This Lovely Day" and I remembered this at 6:30 in the morning when the baby kicked me awake and I couldn't get back to sleep at all. YaYa eventually woke up and started calling my name and so I brought her into bed with me and she made happy little humming noises into my neck while Chinua occasionally made annoyed noises behind me like he does when the kids are too close for comfort while he's waking up. But the scene is one of the ones where St. Francis is sitting in a field with animals all around him, lovingly contemplating beauty and peace.
One more thing. I made Nanaimo Bars for the first time, and the story behind this is that I haven't had homemade Nanaimo Bars since the year that my mom made them ahead of time for Christmas and froze them. And I ate them all. I mean, I really ate them ALL. I ate every single one, before she ever brought them out. I must have been about eleven? Twelve? I really can't remember, but I do remember that I bought my parents a box of chocolates to try to make up for it and guess what. I ATE THEM TOO. I don't know why they didn't leave me on the side of the road somewhere.
Did I ever write about when Chinua and I were first married and we were playing SIMS at his family's house in Detroit? On the game we were a nice little married couple and we got a call asking if we wanted to adopt a baby, so we said yes. But, lo and behold, once we had a baby our little simulated people didn't have any time to eat or sleep or have fun and they threw fits at us when we wanted them to do simple things like go to the bathroom, so they would just pee on the floor. After some discussion, we decided that the only thing for us was to put the baby on the lawn, as far away from the house as we could. After a few days the Social Worker came and got him and yelled at us, but we didn't care because our fun meters were up again.
They actually trust people like us with children. But the thing is, in real life your fun meters can be down, and you don't have time for showers and you hold your pee for way too long so the kids can finish eating, and sometimes you have no money for anything but diapers but you just keep swimming, just keep swimming and eventually everything turns out okay and God gives you a way to have your fun meters recharged, like letting you come and stay here at this beautiful house on Christmas Eve with nice treats left out for you. The babies don't ever get put on the lawn. Although sometimes bedtime feels a bit like the lawn. And all this to say, wow. Another one. I know someday a few years from now life will get a little bit more normal... maybe.
And all that to say that Nanaimo Bars are a beautiful Christmas treat that we have in Canada and you all should get on the Internet and get a recipe for them for next Christmas because as soon as I made them I thought, boy oh boy these are good and I really could eat another whole pan. Again. But it's like SIMS and real life. Now I live in real life and self control is a big part of real life so I am totally content with just one or two. Merry Christmas everyone. Jesus is real and as one of my favorite carols says "the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn..."