Welcome, 2023!

Happy 2023! Honestly? December did a number on me. In less than a month, my elder brother passed away, two family members were hospitalized, and we welcomed three beautiful babies into our midst. We celebrated the marriage of a lovely young couple.

​It’s not that each of those life events kept me personally super busy, but my emotions? All over the place.

And now it’s 2023. It just goes to show how little control we have, lest we forget. It also reminds me of what we can control – our own behaviors, thoughts, reactions (at least up to a point). And guess what! I’m not here to preach right now. I just don’t have it in me.

I’d rather share something funny that happened. It was actually awful when it happened and yet still funny. Saturday, New Year’s Eve, Joseph and I were busy during the day tidying up and preparing for a New Year’s Day family breakfast at our house. The last thing he did meal-prep-wise was to set the pressure cooker to cook fava beans so that we could have ful mdammas the next day. They could steam while we were getting ready for the party, and he would remove the pot from the heat on our way out.

Well… when the time came and we were about to leave our bedroom -- he was already in suit and tie and I was in my cocktail dress -- we heard a strange sound, like a train coming through the house. It was very loud and I’m pretty sure that the house shook, although possibly it just felt that way... Anyway, we couldn’t imagine what it was. We ran from our room to see steam shooting straight up to the kitchen ceiling and mushrooming out. We couldn’t even see most of the kitchen, there was so much steam.

We both gasped. “The pressure cooker!”

I grabbed his arm, knowing one of us had to turn it off and not wanting either of us to get anywhere near it.

Joseph took off his jacket and forged ahead. Feeling braver, I rushed to open the back door.

What a mess. The kitchen ceiling and walls and counters and cabinets and floor and everything in between were all covered with fava bean water! At first, we weren’t sure if the ceiling had been burned. But nope, bean stuff. Good thing, but EWWWW! He changed clothes, I put on my slippers, and we worked for over an hour, cleaning up the worst of it.

Then he changed clothes again, I changed footwear, and we left to welcome the new year with family, friends, and community.

The next morning we still found “bean stuff” here, there, everywhere. Breakfast was a little late. But we raised our mimosas to the New Year.

Oh, and we ate ful mdammas.

Wishing you a year of love, laughter, and joy!