Mother and Mother-in-Law

With my mom headed to Italy for the first time in 6 weeks, we have been getting the house and our heads ready for her visit. She is arriving 3-4 weeks before the birth of the baby and might stay a month after. I am thrilled, Deme is a bit in shock I think, as he has never met my mother and in some way, and I think he does not believe that I am really Chinese. I warned him that my old ways will pop up as soon as my mom gets here and he might not see a stitch of pasta for up to 2 months.

As I go through my kitchen and inventory all my Chinese and American supplies it occurs to me that my mom will have to make do with things, she is not used to here and things that she might miss from Guam aka the States.

A laundry list came to mind but her are my top 5:

1. The lack of good plastic wrap, the plastic wrap in Italy is NOT Reynolds Wrap.

2. No canned or boxed chicken broth or beef broth for that matter, just over salty bouillon cubes.

3. No doubly thick, super strength aluminum foil, for broiling her famous Chinese BBQ pork on the oven.

4. No low sodium soy sauce

5. Gallons of milk, here they some in liter, almost the same the quarts and only last us 2 days or so.

I took Deme to the market to have a look at all the Asian stores I frequent so he will be able to take my mom. In addition, I spoke to my neighborhood shopkeeper and told him that I might be sending my mom over with a short list of items, as she does not speak any Italian. He then gave me a card and said I could call with my list and he could have it ready or he could even walk the groceries over to my house for me. Wow! Now that is great customer service. I hope with all my preparations we will be ready to have my mom stay at least a month and maybe up to two. I miss her cooking and her laugh; it has been almost 4 years since I have seen her and I am looking forward to her trip almost as much as the actual baby itself.


All contents copyright 2004-2006.
All rights reserved.