Birthday Weekend: Part One

If this weekend is any indication, it’s going to be a fabulous decade.

Sometime after Christmas I realized that, Hey, birthday month is just around the corner. And not just any birthday: my 40th birthday!

I wondered why I hadn’t started on decorations and guest lists and fabulous party favors and boxes of sparklers for guests with custom printed ribbon and (can you tell who loves Pinterest?) and on and on.

In short order I came out of that reverie. I am so glad my birthday worked out the way it did, without the overthinking and overplanning. I didn’t spend weeks making myself tired and anxious and overwrought. I didn't spend hours on the color of the napkins and the font on the invitations that should perfectly reflect, sum up, and symbolize me!

I didn’t do that. I bought packages of pink and silver tissue paper to make these paper floofs for the dining room. Didn’t do that, either. Forgot to even get special birthday napkins, or any napkins at all to serve with cake and ice cream. That was okay, too.

Jeffrey and The Child sent me gorgeous pink roses on my birthday eve. They're gorgeous, and, I told him, “They even smell!” Jeffrey said, um, yes, they are FLOWERS. I explained that often florist flowers have no scent at all whereas these smelled heavenly.

We went to my parents’ house for dinner that night. My mom fixed my birthday favorite: chicken pie. The chicken was flavorful and tender and with a bite of the flaky pastry – OH. So good. I asked Mom for iced sugar cookies for dessert, and they were exactly what I hoped for. The cookies were sugary and melted in my mouth. They were topped with a light glaze of creamy icing. Perfect.

After dinner I opened presents. Wait until I tell you what they gave me!