Nancy's birthday, power games and 43

Sunday we all got together to celebrate Nancy's birthday. Orginially we were going to go to a restaurant, but Amanda wasn't able to make it so we had a dip party. Yeah, I know, the joke is too too obvious to make though. If I were to make it, it would include us all. My contribution was to make Swedish Meatballs. I love cooking and I've said it before, it's therapy. I get into the kitchen, I've collected all the necessary ingredants in advance and I love it. Somehow, this time I blew it. Around lunch time I go to get bread for a sandwich. I also picked up heavy cream for the sauce, but forgot good bread for the meatballs. When I go looking for the beef broth down stairs, I can't see any. The next day I will find it, where I'd put it, a shelf below where I looked, right below the chicken broth.So I run out to get some beef broth and don't realize I've forgotten my wallett until I'm at self-check out. I rush back home, get my wallett and leave. About half way back to the grocery, Teri calls and asks me where I've been, where I'm going and why did I rush out of the house? I'm confused, there was no one home. It turns out Nancy is in the living room and Teri is upstairs and I'd parked on the street , not seeing her car. I start the meatballs after all the running around about five, for a six PM dinner. Teri asks me how long do they take? and honestly I didn't know. For me dinner is ready when everything is cooked and I am rarely concerned with time as Teri can well confirm. Teri wants to help and I'm rushing around and she is asking me questions and I'm angry it is so late to be starting this and I should have been more organized and Teri is asking more questions and I'm trying not to be angry and "no, Teri I'm not mad, why would you think that?". Teri starts to clean up for me. I use a few too many pans when I cook. I'll put onions in a bowl for two minutes while I cut celery. So lots of pans that get used for a short peroid of time. The Meatballs get made in a timely manner, about twenty minutes or was it closer to an hour? Mother's and daughter's usually don't get along at certain points of their lives.Teri and Nastia are no different. Teri wants Nastia to grow up and be an independent lady. While at times Nastia is determined to grow up a foul mouthed, man dependent unemployed house wife and mother who talks like a truck driver. If this was the 1950's Nastia could be a very happy person, but it's not. So Teri and Nastia bump heads often. Tonight while I am cooking was one of those nights. I don't remember the fight, I just remember how their attitudes changed on a dime. They had just finished fighting when Queen's Bohemian rhapsody comes on Alexa. If you future people don't know Queen and Bohemian Rhapsody, civilized society has come to an end. In a strange way that song unites Teri and Nastia and they both start singing it and also dance a little to it. I took a video and you guys are the only one who know about it. Call me and I'll show it to you. Other wise you'll just have to imagine it. After the song ends, Teri quickly whips up a corn dip and then Amanda shows up. Everyone is here. Now back on mother's day I lost Teri's card and with everything that was going on I didn't find it in my computer

until the next day or maybe it was a day or two after that. I finally filled it out. I add a bottle of Rumchatta and a day or two before Nancy's birthday, at night for a surprize the next morning I left it where Teri usually sets up her computer. That next morning Teri goes to work instead of working from home. That night we eat dinner in the kitchen. For two, three days the rumchatta sits on the table. After a while I start to wonder who would break first and admit to it's existence. I don't remember exactly how it came about, but Teri asks me if I'm going to just leave that there and it would have been nice to tell her it was there the night I put it there. I thought it was a surprize, but I replied that I was wondering who would break first and then I smiled, I don't think she thought it was funny or smiled back. We sit down to eat dinner. I think, this is a celebration and for some reason I think of the bottle of 43 I have down stairs and how it would be nice to sample a little of that vanilla liquor, so of course I go and get it. I

round up four glasses, Teri saying she didn't want any.I hand a small glass with about a half inch of golden yellow liquid in it to Amanda, then Nancy and finally Nastia and Elena. Nastia has had it before and swollows it. Elena a little suspicious snifes it, looks it over and finally tastes it. She makes a face, then asks for more. I give both girls about four shot of it and the light weights they are, I am forced to cut them off after their mother

complains. I didn't care if they got drunk and had hang overs. It would have been controlled and they need to know the cost of too much alcohol. Dinner ends with a canoli cake made by Amanda, it was good. After clean up Teri takes Amanda and Nancy home, Nastia and I go watch TV and Elena goes up to facetime Matt. It was a good night. i /