When my husband and I were dating in college, we would often take long walks during the day. Around lunch time we would inevitably get hungry and have "the talk" about who's house we would eat at.
In my mind I would go through my cupboards and immediately announce...."Oh for sure not my house, I have nothing to eat." to which he would immediately say, "Well then my house it is. I have tons of food."
At his house I would sit on the bar stool and watch him stick a potato in the microwave. After six minutes he would take that potato out and cut it in half and then stick peas, cheese, salsa, Yoshida's sweet and sour sauce, and mustard on top and pop the spud back in for a couple more minutes....Voila.... Urinating potatoes.....you know....because of the peas?....
The first time I stared at this creation I said, "Well, if this is TONS of food...we could've eaten at my house. I have a can of soup for heaven's sake." His potato combination was delicious by the way. Probably my favorite way to eat potatoes.
My husband always claimed that food was a pedestal for condiments and his food reflected that belief. His specialty was Santa Claus with three cheeses. Mashed potatoes smashed with peas and covered in a red sauce. Then parmesan, cheddar, mozerella on top. He didn't have a lot of money in college to buy cheese. So mostly he made me a Santa Claus. Naming food is very important to him. He is a poet. Poets don't use a recipe. They create food and form a story out of it.
The day he made me Spaghetti and mustard.....I chose not to eat.
Eating at my husbands house was common when we were dating. I just really got a kick out of watching him make me food. I did know how to cook. In fact I was already pretty good at it by the time I was in college. My mom taught me how to make soup out of leftovers.I could make a mean soup. In fact. I would save a bunch of money by going to the store and buying cheap produce, canned goods, and rancid meat, and making a soup out of it. People did give me a hard time about it. I guess that's because I specialized in making food that looked like barf........I don't know.
When we got married, I started doing all the cooking because it's my favorite thing to do. But my most favorite day of the year is our anniversary because my husband makes me dinner. It feels like old times back in college when I was sitting on the bar stool at his house and had no idea what I would eat. Except for the anniversary dinner, I am kicked out of the house and can't come home until 5:30 when it was done.
The tradition of him making dinner for me got very memorable when the kids got in on the act. The first year the kids were involved, I came home to candles and fancy dishes and many posters taped up around the house that the kids had drawn of two people kissing... The meal was "crepes" with beef and gravy. Except my husband of course didn't use a recipe and what I had on my plate was a huge thick pancake with tough strips of cheap steak and gravy on top....mmmmmmm.... I loved it. And I teased him of, course, about the "crepe". The kids were happy to eat it because they helped make it and were so proud.
Also that first anniversary the kids were involved, I was surprised that they were so caught up in the love and romance of it all that they started asking us how we met. What we did when we went on dates? They asked us about how daddy asked mommy to marry him. What was our wedding like? Then they wanted to know about the night they were born. And who was there and was Daddy scared?... on and on they asked. It was really quite a sweet little celebration, remembering together the story of the beginning. As we told the stories, it was like they were there when my husband made me the first urinating potatoes.
This year as we celebrate our 15th anniversary I feel thankful for many chances to retell the story to our children and remember. I am anticipating the night this year and having our anniversary during the advent season my mind has been imagining the Holy family and wondering what an anniversary night would have looked like for Mary and Joseph when Jesus was a little boy. My sweet husband would like me to note here that there isn't anything Biblical about my imagination. (and we respect the men folk around here!!!!)
I can picture in my head a dirt floor and a simple house. Mary has been sent away to chat with the ladies while Joseph makes Santa Claus with three cheeses but only out of lentils and hummus. I can see Joseph sticking lentils in a pot and boiling them over a fire. And cooking them a little too long until they were mushy and the water turns thick. Then I can picture Joseph giving Jesus a mortar and pestle full of garbonzo beans, garlic, salt, and sesame seeds and letting him pound away until it got pasty. "Go out to the tree and get a lemon, Jesus." I can hear him say. "We must name this dish, Jesus. How about mud and stucco?" And since the meal doesn't take long the two boys maybe would spend some serious time making a bunch of chairs out of eggplants for a table decoration. I can see Mary walking in and seeing two eggplant chairs strategically placed facing each other to hold a bowl of lentils just for her.
Maybe little Jesus celebrating the anniversary with his mom and dad would ask questions about how they met. How did they date? What was the night of his birth like? Who was at the wedding?....and maybe they would've told him..... everything. Maybe they even told him about the controversy of Joseph marrying his mother and what great faith it took for him to go through with it....I can picture Joseph saying, "Well son, being married to your mother, has not been boring." Joseph would of no doubt, from his perspective, told Jesus about what it was like to take a trip such a long way when Mary was so close to her time to give birth. I can see him saying, "I was hoping she would wait to give birth because I didn't know how to deliver a baby. And then, son, you were born in a barn."
I have always wondered at what point Jesus knew who he was and where he came from. As I imagine Mary and Joseph telling Jesus the birth story I can see him smiling at the whole thing. The faith of it all. The simplicity of it all. The adventure. I wonder if he looked up at Mary and Joseph with a proud face. As if to say, "You did it! You went through with the absurd!" I can imagine him saying, "Tell me again." and Mary and Joseph being firm, "No son, we only tell it once on this day. You have to wait again until next year."
Then after dinner Joseph and Mary would take hands and dance side by side a Jewish dance step and Jesus would try to squeeze inbetween them. I can even see them putting little Jesus up on a chair and raising him high as they sang loud and off key.
The days after the anniversary celebration when all the other little four year olds were pretending to tend sheep I can see Jesus wanting to play "ride the donkey into Bethlehem." Instead of using the chairs in the house for playing trains like we do, Jesus maybe used his chairs to make a herd of donkeys. Then maybe he sat Mary down and stuck a melon under her shirt like she was with child and gave her a rope to hold onto so he could lead her across the desert. He would check her forehead every once in a while and bring her water. Maybe Mary played along with it and pretended to act faint.
While all the other children had their dolls neatly tucked in bed, I can picture Jesus having a doll in a bucket filled with twigs and sticks, to pretend that it was him laying in a feeding trough. Then maybe he would pick more lemons from the tree and poke faces into them to make pretend animals all around the bucket.
Doesn't that feel so homey and sweet?
I can't get these images out of my head. I know it's a little bit Talladega Nights....but this year as I celebrate 15 years with my family and retell our story, as I think about advent, I am pondering little boy Jesus instead of baby Jesus. As my children play with the nativity scenes around the house, I will be reminded of little boy Jesus playing with his own homemade nativity and remembering who he is and why he came.....I know it's not Biblical, but it's a sweet picture in my mind that helps me connect with a real life personal Jesus....that I'm totally in love with.
Blessings to you this advent season.....
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