Late last year, Warner Brothers released Wonka, a reimagined prequel to the 1971 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory starring Timothee Chalamet as a bright-eyed upstart young candy maker who dreams only of coating the world in delicious, perfect chocolate. Earlier this month, my 8-year-old walked into the movie theater for a showing of Wonka and came out a changed man. Specifically, he had changed from a normal (or “normal,” as Eight very much marches to the beat of his own drum) kid into the real-life human embodiment of Willy Wonka – if Willy Wonka was in the 3rd grade in North Dakota and also liked chicken nuggets. Eight was so transfixed by every detail of the movie that when it came out on streaming two days later, we bought it.
Over the past month, Eight has watched Wonka roughly 2 billion times. This is not an exaggeration; in fact, it’s probably 3 billion. He has seen it so many times that Kyle has yet to sit down and actually view the movie from start to finish in one go and can still reenact the majority of the scenes. Eights has seen it so many times that the aforementioned Kyle bought him a Wonka costume, which came with a brown duster jacket, top hat, and cane in adult sizes because I’m not sure the costume people at Warner Brothers ever anticipated a child wanting this outfit.
Eight has seen Wonka so many times that he played in a hockey tournament a few weekends back and I was standing on the end by the glass (as a reminder, he’s a goalie) and I watched him hop around on the ice and realized he was singing and dancing to one of the Wonka songs – and then he pointed his hockey stick at me and I finished singing the line because I could tell by the way he bopped around in all of that goalie equipment which song it was (Eight has taken to singing all of the Willy Wonka and Slugworth lines and I’ve been tasked with the remainder of the 72-person cast).
Last weekend, we took a whirlwind trip to Minneapolis for the NCHC Frozen Faceoff. We stayed with my parents for a bunch of reasons, including the fact that my mom (whom the kids call Bubbe) was going to watch Eight while Kyle and I went to a Willy Wonka-less work function.
“Guess what we’re going to do tonight?” Bubbe asked Eight, handing him an envelope.
He opened it up.
“It’s a Golden Ticket!” he said.
“It’s a Golden Ticket because we’re going to MAKE CHOCOLATE,” Bubbe said, producing a bag filled with silicon molds and chocolate bits.
“Oh, boy!” I said. “That sounds fun and also a huge mess.”
“It will be VERY fun, and it will be a GOOD mess,” Bubbe said.
Eight didn’t say anything because his mind had exploded.
Bubbe and Eight had already pulled everything out of the bag before the rest of us had left the house. I was the first to return later that evening, entering through the garage and into the kitchen.
Or, should I say, formerly the kitchen, as the room was coated top to bottom in chocolate.
“Oh, haha, Amanda, you are such an exaggerator,” you may be thinking. Well, it took two washes to get the chocolate off the bottom of my socks and the hem of my jeans, so you tell me.
There was chocolate on the counter. There was chocolate on the fridge. There was chocolate on the handle of the pantry, and on the door of the pantry, and on the wall of the pantry, and on the cans of peas in the pantry. The greatest amount of chocolate was on Eight, who was wearing a different shirt than the one he had on when I had left because, as Bubbe told me later, the original had a little bit of chocolate on it. The new one also had a little bit of chocolate on it – like on the sleeves, the midsection, the back, the neck and, somehow, the underside.
“LOOK AT WHAT WE MADE,” Eight screeched, producing a plate filled with chocolate-covered strawberries.
“Yum,” I said, eating one (delicious). “It looks like maybe you’ve had a couple of these already.”
“YES, I HAVE,” Eight shouted, bouncing off the walls. “COME HAVE SOME MORE CHOCOLATES.”
The living room table was covered in Bubbe’s silver dishes, each filled with individually wrapped chocolates tied with ribbon. The dishes contained different concoctions of flavors.
“I think I’ll have a chocolate mint,” I said, selecting one out of the bowl.
“YES,” Eight yelled. “AND HERE IS ONE OF THE WHITE CHOCOLATE BLUEBERRIES, AND HERE IS THE WHITE CHOCOLATE MINT, AND HERE IS THE DARK CHOCOLATE WITH A CHOCOLATE CHIP IN IT, AND HERE IS ANOTHER ONE THAT I CAN’T REMEMBER.”
“I’ll just have this,” I said, “and save the rest for later.”
Eight’s face fell.
“Or, I’ll eat them all now,” I said.
By the time Kyle got home, I, too, was bouncing off the walls, having eaten more chocolate that evening that I had the entirety of 2023.
Naturally, Bubbe sent the chocolate set home with Eight. We had barely unpacked the suitcases when Eight laid out the first mold.
“Let’s see if we can be a bit neater this time,” I said.
We were not any neater the second go-around. In fact, we may have been messier because I decided to “help” and burned the first batch of chocolate. Willy Wonka was not impressed. He was pleased, however, that we ended up with a delectable stack of messy chocolate peppermint stars covered in green sugar sprinkles.
“Should we make chocolate-covered bananas, too?” Eight said, his mouth full of chocolate.
“I think this is enough chocolate for now,” I said.
“There’s never enough chocolate for now,” Eight said, speaking the truth.
The photo above contains a few of the goods from Bubbe and Eight’s Chocolate Factory. The sign in the foreground reads: “Love chocs. Make you feel all loved inside.”
This week on North Dakota Today, we talked about the wonderful host of Valley News Now and a free event for aviation fans of all ages. (Valley News Live)
Else Rike is 100 years old and is – ready for it – ONE of North Dakota’s longest-working tax preparers. Possibly related, she came to America in 1935 from Norway and picked up painting as a hobby and then started doing taxes in 1962. (Fargo Forum)
Speaking of taxes – North Dakota residents: I typically don’t post about government/politics, but you have a week to apply for a $500 discount on your property taxes (and it takes about five minutes) so get’er done. (State of North Dakota)
Mandan’s John Bugbee and Alayna Tetzloff have “crumbl’d” the hearts of North Dakota with their fantastic promposal. (Valley News Live)
Congratulations to all of the students who competed in this year’s North Dakota State Spelling Bee! (Fargo Forum)
Well, I’m late to this fundraiser but the registries are still open so if you want to help a Grand Forks elementary school, click here. (Facebook)
Officer Michael Anderson went viral because he’s, well, hot (PS, and married). (KVRR)
I made a video about the importance of sharing your stories and eating ranch dressing. (Facebook)
Kyle and his friends, Corey and Kelly, have a podcast called North Dakota After Dark where they talk about youth hockey in North Dakota. The latest episode is up and is an interview with Matt Strinden of California. Check it out. Bonus: you can watch it on YouTube. (North Dakota After Dark)
North Dakota Nice 
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