Happy Birthday Uncle Jim!

The good thing about family is that when you are close and spend a lot of time together, you have lots of stories about each other. The bad thing about family is that when you are close and spend a lot of time together, you have lots of stories about each other…

Although I have a lot of relatives (my mom is the oldest of 10, my dad youngest of 8), I’m not particularly close to most of them. My mom is closest to her eldest younger sister, (Di Tien) which is the one that I have known all my life. When I was younger, we used to live in Indiana and Di Tien lived in Illinois, in a suburb really close to Chicago. Since we were only about a 4-hour drive away, I used to see my aunt quite a bit, often spending part of my summers with her and my Uncle Jim, her husband. Quick lesson in Vietnamese, "Dì" = "Younger aunt on mother's side"


One summer, when my brother (Steve) and I were visiting, she taught us how to make chocolate chip cookies.  With our “help,” we made five dozen cookies. Quite a feat for us youngsters not to tear into them right away!

Lincoln Park Zoo

While we waited for the cookies to cool, she suggested that we take a walk to the Lincoln Park Zoo. If I remember right, it was a hot day, and when we got to the zoo, most of the animals were inside. I was pretty disappointed and remember inquiring, ok, whining, “what kind of zoo is this if it has no animals!?”

After a few hours, we went back to my aunt’s and were excitedly anticipating a cookie treat after the disappointment we encountered at the zoo.  We opened the door, and went to the kitchen. To our astonishment, ALL the cookies were gone!

Poof! 

Vanished!

Bewildered, my aunt called out, ”Jim! Are you home?” He came out and my aunt asked him about the cookies and he said that he ate them. All SIXTY of them…  with some milk, of course.

Can you guess his nickname?

Cookie Monster

So, for his birthday this year, I decided to hit him where it hurts and made some chocolate chip and pecan cookies: a plate for him and a plate for everyone else. Not six dozen, after all, we all need to watch our figures! 

Happy Birthday Uncle Jim!