Mi Madre!

It must be something in the water or something that has to do with the holidays all around that have gotten me thinking about family and so many people that are so close to me. I've been on a cooking craze lately, wanting to try new things and also wanting to make some recipes that I haven't made in awhile or that I've never tried to make. Of course, cooking always reminds me of my mom. I am thankful for my mom for so many reasons (we'll get to that later) but one thing I am so thankful for my mom is that she is a great cook and has tried to pass some of that down to me! I will never ever think I am as good a cook as my mom, but the funny this is that I hear her say the same thing about her mom about certain things she cooks! I just hope one day my kids will say that about me! So here are a few reasons I am thankful for my mom:

My favorite cookie recipe of all time, and of course I still don't think mine taste as great as my mom's. I think that's partly from the weird brown sugar we have here in Guatemala. :) Mmmmm, M & M cookies!

My Thanksgiving dinner, just my two favorites: turkey and mashed potatoes with gravy. My gravy will NEVER ever live up to my mom's but this is one thing that she says she can't make as good as her mom either. I don't believe her though! I miss good brown gravy so much! :) But I do have to admit, the mashed potatoes were pretty good. I hadn't made real mashed potatoes in a long time!

My favorite thing to wake up to on Christmas morning. Not sure if mom knows she has made it a tradition, but to me it is! I made one over Thanksgiving. It was great, but again, not quite as good as mom's! I gave a piece to the guard downstairs in my building and told him it was a family tradition to eat this!

Mom and daughter relationships are a funny thing. When you are really young, you want to do everything like your mom. You want to dress like her, you play "house" and say the things that she says, etc. Then you enter into the lovely preteen and teenage years when you tell your mom that you hate her and don't want anything to do with your mom. You don't want her to drop you off by the door in case anyone sees you. Those kinds of things. And then this weird thing happens when you get older. You start to hear yourself saying things that your mom says, you find yourself doing things and having the same mannerisms of your mom. At first, you're kind of like, "OH NO, I'm turning into my mom." And you go into a sort of panic about it. Then one day it hits you, "Wow, I'm turning into my mom." And you feel proud about it. At least for me, this is the series of phases I have gone through. And it feels so nice to be in the last one! :) I find myself wishing I could do things like my mom. For example:

-I still cannot tear saran wrap off the roll without making a mess of it. I don't know how my mom can do it. If she ever does have trouble with it, I sure have never seen her!

-I wish I could make brown gravy like my mom. I know I have mentioned this before, but it deserves to be mentioned twice.

-I wish I knew how to have everything hot at once for dinner.

-I wish I could plan meals for the week and make one grocery store run and get everything at once.

And I'm sure there are many more! I am finding myself more and more like my mom. I couldn't stand having a maid, because I came home and things weren't where I left them. I am anal about certain things, not quite as much as my mom, but I'm sure that's where I got it. At least from her side of the family (my grandpa was the most anal person I knew!). I think I got my stubbornness from my mom too. I like things done my way and if they aren't I usually choose to walk away. Not to make a scene or whine about it, but just to walk away. I fold my underwear, I keep my clothes in order or long sleeves, short sleeves, sweaters, etc in my closet. When I start making my bed before I leave in the morning, I will start to get worried! :)

I am glad I have a mom that I can learn so much from and that I'm now proud of myself when I find myself doing things "like mom does." :)