Don & Lavonne

We are soooo excited that our close friends, Don and Lavonne Harms are here visiting for a week. They arrived on Sunday night after a long day of traveling. It's so great to be able to spend time with them. We have missed them so much, yet when we're together, it feels as if they had never left (Don and Lavonne currently live in Winnipeg). I've made two Vietnamese meals for them- before they left almost two years ago, I hadn't ventured into trying to make anything Vietnamese. I have never made as much Vietnamese food as I have in these last two weeks. Anyway, on the first night, I made them a pretty simple meal- Lemongrass Chicken with Rice. The next night, we had a Vietnamese-style fondue, where each person cooks their own beef and shrimp in butter (yup, nice and healthy), then wrapped in rice paper, with rice noodles, lettuce, tons of herbs, and bean sprouts. They are then dipped into a spicy dipping sauce (made of fish sauce). It was fun- this meal brought back memories of when I was a kid and we'd have this meal on special occasions. There would be so many people that no table was big enough. We all sat cross-legged on the floor with everything in the middle. Back then, the meats were mainly cooked in rice vinegar, not butter. Of course, I prefer butter!!!

Last night, Lavonne insisted that I not do any school work (that in itself is a big deal), and we played games all night. After rounds of Pick 4 (Thao & Peter- we've introduced this game to soooo many people!), and Perpetual Commotion (aka Dutch Blitz or Nertz), we ended the night playing... Life: the Star Wars version. I actually bought the game for my 5th graders at a thrift store, but keep forgetting to bring it to school. I don't know why, but we were cracking up the whole time. It took us quite a while to figure out how to actually play the game. Everything just seemed so funny, especially when Jason put in his Star Wars Soundtrack. (And no, we weren't "drinking" anything)! It neared midnight when the game finally ended. Jason was a Sith Lord, and both Don & Lavonne became Jedi Knights. I was too tired to finish the game. I guess you can say I dropped out of Jedi training.