It’s a year already!!

On this day last year I tied a knot with the man of my many many dreams. I don’t know what I have done to deserve this kind of gift from Allah, but nevertheless I am forever grateful.

My kids were excited about us having first wedding anniversary. They were like:

 “Aww Mami habis ini Mami sudah satu tahun tinggal sama kita di sini!”

“Aku nggak sabar nunggu tanggal 19 Januari nanti wedding anniversary.”

“Aduhhh aku bingung mau kasih kado apa ya buat Mami sama Abi.”

… and then nothing happened on January 19th. The kids woke up, rushed to cleaned up their rooms and showered, turned on their laptop and logged into their school’s conference call.

Mami confused. Oh well, kids! Hahha.

Anyway, I sent some cryptic messages to my husband the day before.

“Aku suka kue rasa mocca nougat.”

“Kue tart home made yang aku paling percaya rasanya enak dan bersih cuma Tante Sylvi dan Mbak Ade.”

“Yayaya. Mau kue tart,’ he said.

Tante Sylvi is my mother’s high school BFF who lives in the same neighbourhood as my parents and runs a catering company. I think I’ve said before that basically it was my mother’s cooking or hers that I ate growing up. Mbak Ade is my sister-in-law and she too, has a baking business. She made delicious lasagna, mocca cake, tiramisu, milk bath cake and fruit salad. I really mean it, not just because she’s my in law. 😀

Late at night, like reallyyyyy late around 09.00 p.m. my husband said that Mbak Ade was busy, she couldn’t take our order. I was instantly manyun. I was expecting to have a mocca nougat cake for our anniversary because:

a) It’s my favorite cake and Maison Benny already closed.

b) I didn’t get a chance to eat the cakes and desserts which menu I personally picked at my wedding.

c) I finally can celebrate anniversaries like other people!

d) There must be a special occasion to buy a cake, otherwise it wouldn’t taste as good.

I know that this classic cake has started trending again but my thing with mocca nougat cake started out years ago. One of Bude Betty’s sibling used to have a famous old-style bakery shop in Jakarta called Maison Benny. Almost every year, when Pakde Didit (my father’s older brother by 2 years that looks like his twin) and Bude Betty came to Surabaya for Idul Fitri, they brought this delicious cake, and another one with dried fruits and marzipan. See, my flair for classic cake has been nurtured since childhood. That’s why I tend to pass on the trendy cake hype. Cake artis? Meh.

Well… to add to the drama: I became very quiet and up until bedtime my husband asked me what was going on. I said I wanted a mocca nougat cake for our wedding anniversary. And lots of proper picture of both us, and us with the kids, together as a married couple and a family. For the past 5 days I have been looking at our wedding photos and the kids did not really have proper photos taken back then. Dza had a few good photos taken, but the boys didn’t. They were already too tired by the time the photo session began back on our wedding day.

I texted my parents whether Tante Sylvi can make such sudden order or not. My husband told me he’ll check on some cake shops for the desired cake. Luckily, early in the morning my father confirmed that Tante Sylvi could help us. Yay!

***

I was still a bit sad due to a personal cause, which perhaps I will share here on the blog later but yesterday was a simple but beautiful night.

My husband came home from work. We ate mie pangsit for dinner (Yes, we’re noodle lovers. I literally can fight with my kids over noodles) and then the five of us: Day, Dil, Dza, my husband and I finally have a proper family photo together! We were in our home attire and we took pictures. Love!

We took the kids to sleep at 10.00 p.m. and promised them that they can eat the anniversary cake the next morning. If they woke up early without drama, cleaned up their room, showered on time bla bla bla… the terms and conditions almost made Dza cried! Oops! I guess the joke was too much for her.

Well, we secretly took a slice of the cake and ate them after the kids went to bed.

Thank you for this beautiful night, dear Allah.