birthday report

Last week at PT, a couple of the guys asked me what I was going to do for my birthday. Their suggestions: get a tattoo or go skydiving. Um, no and no. Apparently they don't know me very well. As Denise says, I am a low-level recreator.

I had a very relaxing birthday celebration that just kept going and going!

On Saturday, I went out to lunch and to a movie with Jill.

On Sunday, Marc stayed home with a sick Eva. I took the boys to church, then came home, blogged, and took a delightful nap.

Marc invited his family over and cooked my favorite dinner (lemon chicken, broccoli with blue cheese, and rice). Michelle brought her amazing spinach/strawberry salad and Grandpa Bob brought lots of beautiful fruit (Grandma Mim was sick and had to stay home).

Bob and Mim gave me the sweetest, most clever gift! Four numbered envelopes, one for each decade of my life. Each one had an age-appropriate card, a very nice hand-written message, and some cash. I'm going to have to remember that one.

Michelle gave me this book I have been wanting to read for what seems like forever, and 3 pieces of luscious wool felt. (I didn't even know it came in houndstooth and plaid!!)

I forgot to take a picture, but Emily gave me Adele's new album, which I secretly had been pining for – yes!

Marc also made my traditional German chocolate birthday cake. YUM.

He put Eva to bed and slept on the trundle bed in her room to make sure that I got to sleep through the night.

On Monday, I slept in until I woke up naturally, oh rare joy! Then I stayed in bed and read, one of my favorite things in life. I got up and got ready, even though I had no plans to leave the house. A day of not having to drive the kids anywhere, woohoo!

I opened Jessie's packages after I got up. She made me 9 cd's! So exciting. She made me tiny, fridge magnet-size mantras modeled after the canvas ones in her kitchen. I love them. She bought me 2 eyeshadows, nail polish, and eyeliner from Ulta (on my wish list), and sent two cute fabrics! A motherlode, for sure.

Jill stopped by with balloons and a drink from Sonic.

Patsy sent me this beautiful cookbook from Williams-Sonoma. It is chock full of photographs of Paris, and I loved flipping through and identifying some of my favorite haunts.

Marc hadn't shaved for several days, and as a joke, he created this mustache and goatee. Every time I looked at him, it cracked me up, because I have never seen him any way other than clean-shaven or a bit scruffy all over.

He took the kids out shopping, so I was treated to some time at home, alone (why is that such a delight?). I watched an episode of Pillars of the Earth while working on a wedding gift that is 4 months overdue (!).

I then went down to my studio to do some cleaning/organizing, while listening to some of my new cd's. It's hard to find the time to spend in there, so it felt amazing to have a couple of hours uninterrupted.

And, and, Marc took the boys to get haircuts. That is a gift!

Lucas wandered downstairs eventually and seemed anxious for me to come and see the gifts they had prepared:


Max bought me an iTunes gift card. I always think it is so sweet when kids spend some of their limited funds on someone else.

Marc got me all of these items from my Amazon wish list (the universal wish list is a brilliant idea).

The boys got me ankle weights, also from my wish list. (Gotta keep up my knee exercises, you know.)

Eva picked out this scarf for me and contributed her last $5 from her Christmas money. Apparently, Marc suggested several possible gifts, but she rejected them all until she saw this.

Marc also got me this Bosu ball, a late addition to my wish list, when I was looking around at PT trying to figure out how to replicate things at home. Everyone loves it.

My mom sent me a necklace, a pair of earrings, a Cutco vegetable peeler,

a cute glass butter dish, and some lengths of fancy silk ribbon.

My mom and dad also sent me a check to apply towards my pricey knee braces. Marc said I should use it for something fun, but I hurried and paid it towards our balance yesterday before I could change my mind.

We were going to all go out to dinner, but Eva was still too sick, so we just got Mexican take-out instead. I watched Chuck with the boys and then House with Marc. Definitely my kind of day.

Tulips from Marc – I love spring!

Amy M. sent me this darling necklace! (It's silver, not gold, that was just a weird reflection.) I love the sentiment and the camera charm.

Last night we had our book club birthday celebration for Collette and me. It felt strange not to bring a dinner contribution when I knew they would be short-handed, but also nice to be a little bit spoiled.

Collette brought me this darling bag with HOPE coasters inside. Perfect!

Check out this card/gift certificate holder that Amy made. Seriously. The girls gave me a g.c. to Amazon, which kind of makes you feel like you have a world of possibilities in your hand. (Because you do.)

Today I got this gift from Kacey – a little tin of covered buttons. That is genius.

And a card from my grandpa with cash inside!

I have been so spoiled the last few days. It was actually hard to return to normal life, packing lunches, driving kids, going to the doctor, doing laundry and grocery shopping. Can you get used to a life of luxury that quickly?

And in case you were wondering, I think I'm over the anxiety about turning 40. It feels a lot like 39, and 38, and 37...

book club Christmas/birthday edition

I hosted book club on Thursday night -- I hadn't seen anyone in book club except for Jill since before we left for Paris, so I was really excited for this get-together. In addition, it was a joint celebration of Jenn's birthday and our traditional Christmas book/gift exchange. SO fun!

I left my Christmas tree up so we could put all the gifts underneath. It's always so fun to see this many gifts and know that they are all for us!

But first, dinner. {photo by Jill}

Amy made beef and carrot stew, Jill made fabulous sage and rosemary mashed potatoes, I made bread, Jana made salad, and Collette brought crackers with cream cheese and jalapeno pepper jelly and chocolate truffles. Oh, and we had homemade grape juice. It was quite a feast!

We got caught up with each other during dinner, and then Collette announced that her gift to us was a getaway! We picked a date (which happens to be her birthday weekend) and we will be going to stay at a hotel together -- ooh la la, what a luxury!

Jill took this picture of us all opening gifts.

Here, they are opening mine: a stack of books ornament that I have been saving since just after Christmas last year (!) and a scarf from Paris, each one different. I hope I chose well for everyone. I love giving gifts!

The motherlode: Jenn sewed us all monogrammed book club bags with notebooks inside for taking book club minutes (i.e. a record of all the hilarious things that are said, mostly by Jana). Jana gave us fancy hair products that smell wonderful. Jill gave us a framed book club self-portrait with a great quote. Oops! I forgot to include in the picture the cute container of homemade divinity and caramels from Jenn, yum.

Jill gave to me for the book exchange this year and she gave me Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris, a book by an author I enjoy and one I have not yet read! She also made a darling "we were in Paris!" bookmark, 2nd edition. (I am still using the first one.)

Close-up of Jill's gift -- I was SO relieved to see that it wasn't the group photo taken at my baby shower when I was oh-so-great with child!

Jenn was doing a little final stitching on our bags while we discussed The Hunger Games. (Her scarf was the only one I knew without a doubt was the right choice! And her reaction was gratifying indeed.)

We all really enjoyed the book, although I think I loved it slightly less than the others, only because I had seen the Japanese movie Battle Royale, which has essentially the same premise. Because the idea was not fresh to me, it wasn't as exciting. Still, it was a page-turner and I read it in two days easily.

I made my grandma's Best Fudge Cake (a.k.a. Ding Dong cake). Man, I had forgotten how delicious that cake is -- it is SO good. Eva helped me to assemble it and was crushed that she couldn't have a piece on Thursday afternoon. I assuaged her devastation by promising she could have a slice for breakfast on Friday. Ha! Cake for breakfast, a pretty good piece of bribery, eh?

We chose books for the first half of 2010 as well. I seriously did not think we could get through Jenn's birthday dinner, our book exchange, our Christmas exchange, book discussion and book selection all in one night, but we did it! And a very fun night it was.