Chocolate! Chocolate! Chocolate! {Stomps Foot}

Nana finally did it.  She hit 99.  "Only one away from a hundred," she says.  It was a beautiful fall day here in Utah, maybe like the day Nana was born in Fillmore, in central Utah.  Her mother wrote a poem about what a bad idea it was to have a baby right during canning season, when she already had 18-month-old twins.  It was a cute poem, bursting with wry humor.  Although Nana's birth came at an inconvenient time canning-and-bottling-wise, she has been a saint on earth for 99 years, blessing everyone around her.

Dance party!  Nana and Coco showing Tizzy and Ro some moves.

Chocolate!  

When Coco and I arrived at the Villas for Nana's birthday, Marilyn, Clark and Owen were just leaving.  It was already a full day for Nana!  We brought a platter of brownies and cookies, all chocolate of course, my recent conversation with Nana notwithstanding.  See, my whole world view has been shaken this week.  I said to Nana, "What kind of cake do you want for your 99th birthday?"  It was a rhetorical question.  DeBrys love chocolate.  Period.  (Unless you're talking about Aunt Marla's lemon dessert.  A special exception has been made for anyone who wants to worship that fluffy confection despite its lack of chocolate.)

Nana's answer was, "If Opa were here, he'd say chocolate."  The hairs on my neck tingled.  Some sort of primordial alarm was dinging.  I pushed it a little further and said, "What about you?  Do you love chocolate as much as Opa?"

Nana sat politely.  I remembered the adage, "Don't ask any questions you don't want to know the answer to."  Then Nana said diplomatically, "Nobody likes chocolate as much as Opa!"  I was mildly concerned that maybe my whole life has been a lie.  Perhaps Nana's favorite flavor isn't chocolate!! And to think that Nana's chocolate chip cookies on Sunday nights had been my link to sanity all through high school.

The next day, I went through the same conversation, but when I asked Nana if she liked chocolate as much as Opa, she paused and then answered, "Chocolate is just universally loved."  Nana was hedging!  I bet if someone were willing to pin her down, we might discover that she secretly likes strawberry or caramel or - gasp - vanilla!  I, for one, am not asking anymore!  I don't think Nana would ever willingly admit an allegiance to any other flavor anyway, just out of sheer adoration of her late husband.  And really, who among us DeBrys has had much of an opportunity to taste anything but chocolate?  How would we know if we liked something else?  It's better not to test those waters.  Avoid the very appearance of white batter.

Hence the platter of chocolate-chocolate chip cookies and chocolate brownies with chocolate frosting.  You can tell I was feeling a slight bit defensive of chocolate.

Is that a look of love or a look of indifference?
We may never know.

Chef Izzie made a special cake for Nana.  Izzie, that cake had better be brown on the inside.  If not...heaven help us.  Stay strong, Nana.