happy birthday!!!

 Yesterday, my second oldest turned 37.  She lives in Delaware now, I texted her a bit but am due for a nice long phone call.  Achilles had a birthday too, he turned four!  He came over and I made "the best cake ever", in his own words.  So we won't compare it to Pinterest, or some amazing ones we saw on Facebook...the kids were delighted, and that's the whole point, right?

 In my defense, there was lightsaber swinging and kids inching and encroaching on the counter space while I frosted.  I had some ideas to make a frog or dinosaur cake, but then thought of a candy cake...the more I put on, the more they liked it.  Achilles especially likes frogs, and Margaret just happened to buy some for him for his birthday, so those gummy frogs on the top, they each HAD to have on on their piece!

Cam with the cake, (Paul in the background, and Sunny!), Rhys, Achilles, cousin Tennyson...

His present from me:  a remote controlled snake.  He adores it, brought it to bed with him last night.  

It was a full and busy day.  I went to the pool, laden with orange juice and freshly ground coffee, plates and napkins and gingerbread cookies, for our pool Christmas brunch.  I met Joan in the party room, she had already put on festive table cloths and had a gift bag at each place setting.  (she gave everyone a mug filled with goodies, homemade shortbread cookies, cocoa, tea, a candy cane, an edible peppermint spoon, chocolates, and a homemade fabric tea cozy to keep the cup warm!)

It was a nice time, I'm not really adventurous with pot luck though.  Soup, sprouted oatmeal with lots of toppings, a variety of quiche, a tossed salad, two different deviled eggs...I also don't usually eat so early.  I had one slice of quiche, and shh, three...yes THREE carrot muffins.  They were smallish, not huge-0 store bakery muffins.  They were chock full of plump raisins and nuts, and shredded carrot, so moist and yummy.  Oh dear, so good.  They liked my gingerbread cookies too.

I did make some gingerbread men too, but I'm partial to the trees.

When I got home, it was clean-up-the-house time.  Vacuum, pick up, just general cleaning...Kathryn came with the kids while I was still vacuuming.  Achilles was so excited to be four years old.  Then when Margaret came in with Wulf, Tenny, and baby Blythe, oh it was a proper party.  (Grace couldn't come with her little ones because one of them is sick). 

I put out a kids' charcuterie board, try to get them to do some healthy snacking:  grapes, little oranges peeled and sectioned in a bowl, pepperoni, cheese, crackers...they all actually like pepperoni.  

Dinner:  meatballs.  Wulf cracked four eggs for me, one at a time in a bowl, no shells, he's good!  I was dubious when he offered, but what the heck.  I chopped the onions and garlic, and he asked why onions have to make us cry, his eyes were so watery.  I told him to just go with it and think of sad things like spoons falling behind the stove and books with pages ripped, but he didn't really want to.  

He and Tennyson took turns stirring the oats, bread crumbs, salt and pepper, garlic and onions around in the bowl.  Their mama said they were allowed to help mix, so I added the four+ pounds of ground beef, and they dug right in.  It was cold though!  They didn't last too long, and I helped them wash up in warm soapy water.  

Spaghetti and meatballs is always a favorite with little kids.  I skipped the spaghetti part, and had six meatballs in sauce, oh so good.  I had meant to make a spaghetti squash, but forgot, oh well.  Maybe today, with the leftovers.

His Lordship the Orange Guy woke me up at five o'clock.  A cat will NOT be ignored.  He purred and walked all over me, trying to find where I wasn't covered up.  Oh, there's my face!  Nudge, nudge, purrr, purr.  He wanted something, but I played possum, I wasn't getting up at five when I had to be up at 6:30.  No sir.  He didn't like this, so he kept at it, left for a bit, then came back and bugged again...ugh.  He is a bossy little guy.

Does anyone remember being little and visiting Santa at a big department store?  Not a mall.  The big mall, long gone now, that opened near where I was growing up, Penn-Can mall, opened in I think 1976, and had 121 stores at it's peak.  But when I was really little, in kindergarten, our whole class got to go on a field trip to downtown Syracuse to see Santa Claus at Sibleys, or Dry Brother's, not sure.  I had afternoon kindergarten, half day, but on that amazing day, I got to take the morning bus, and it was still dark out when my mother was making my hair especially pretty for the occasion.  I don't remember much about the whole excursion, mostly getting up so early and getting ready with my older siblings.

Now, even most of the malls are closed.  Last night I had a dream I was walking in a mall, it was mostly empty, only a few stores open.  I walked up some steps, tripped over another step, stumbled, and got up.  The security guard was the only one around, I joked about my fall, he didn't laugh.  I walked down some more steps, and saw that the hallway ended in a weird triangle ending.  The guard was just standing there blank faced.  I said well I wasted a trip up and down the stairs for nothing...he didn't even blink.  It was eerie...I trundled back up the stairs, and noticed that Macy's was right there, all glittering and shiny, but with no one inside...then I woke up.  Again.  Mr. Kitty, really?  I wanted to know what happened!

Paul's doing better each day, but still coughing.  It's hard to get any sleep, even when he moves out to the couch.   He's tired, I'm tired, but it's getting better.  

Ah well.  I might do a few things today, I ordered one thing from Kohl's to pick up, and I have just a few people to still buy for.  I have things to wrap, too.  My hip is acting up, and that sounds like such an Old People phrase.  I hate to complain, but oh dear.  I think I was on my feet way too long on Sunday, it kicked it into gear again...it's sporadic, I'll take a step, and ouch!  Ouch doesn't cover it.  It's like stabbing pain, but then the next step will be fine.  It's a sharp twinge that happens intermittently.  

We got lots of snow last night.  The kids played on the deck for a bit, then came in all cold so we scooped them up, wrapped them in blankets and I told them stories.  There's an Owl at Home story about winter coming in, so I tell it like it happened here, they love it.  It'll warm up today, the snow will melt again, but it was nice and cozy for a bit, today the house is glowing so festively.  

Have a really nice day.  :)