Immediately following Christmas, we have a string of birthdays in our house…three of them, in fact, in a 10-day period.
Monday, December 28th, was Holden’s 8th birthday. It’s hard to believe 8 years have flown by since I gave birth to my beloved last child! He chose his birthday dinner of homemade calzones and house bacon cheddar salad.
Then he got to have his birthday chip cake with vanilla marshmallow frosting. It was delicious!
On New Year’s Eve, I actually managed to keep myself awake long enough to ring in the New Year, and with it, my 44th birthday! I barely made it…I kept myself awake by reading a book while soaking in a hot bath and then folding laundry, of all things! Steve ended up being the only one to fall asleep. Go figure!
I actually had a wonderful and relaxing birthday. Initally, I wasn’t too happy about being in my mid-40’s, but in the end, it turned out to be a really special day! In the morning, Steve and I went out for breakfast at Denny’s. I had my free Grand Slam, which was delicious! We were pretty much stuffed after that, so we didn’t eat again until evening.
Haylee got out my Perfect Bake and baked me some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies all by herself! I was really proud of her, and they were delicious! Then she and Steve slipped out for a bit, and upon their return, they surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of mixed flowers and a huge tin of Belgian chocolate covered cookies! That was completely unexpected. I also got cards from Steve and the kids, and Haylee had made me a couple of cards, as well.
After a while, my dearest friend, Micka Carden, stopped by and surprised me with another beautiful bouquet of carnations, a box of chocolate covered nuts from Trader Joe’s (yum!), a card, and a lovely fabric-covered message board she’s made for me in my favorite colors for posting prayer cards, notes, or photos. So pretty!
In the evening, Haylee and Steve warmed up a bunch of appetizers I’d bought, and we chowed down on those and a shrimp cocktail ring for dinner. It was a real junk-fest, and it was delicious! Then after my hot bath, they sang to me, and then we enjoyed my favorite Uncle Harry’s Ice Cream Cake!
My $27 ice cream cake ended up being free this year. The company had sent me a voucher for a free small Sweet Moments cake earlier in the year when I alerted them to a problem with their email system. When I went to pick it up from Harris Teeter, they didn’t carry the small ones…only the much bigger ones. But the manager of that department decided to let me get the bigger one with the voucher anyway, so that was awesome! It must have been my lucky day. 
It was so big that we cut it in half, and we’ll use half for my birthday and half for Steve’s birthday this Thursday coming up.
On Saturday, they had planned to make my birthday dinner since we were all stuffed the night before. But instead, we all saved up our hunger and only ate once at about 4 PM when we went out to Red Robin to enjoy our free birthday burgers. I had three coupons…a free kid’s meal for Holden’s birthday, and a free burger each for Steve and me for our birthdays. That was my first time having a burger and fries there, and I must say that it was delicious! I went for the Chophouse Burger. It was really flavorful, and they cooked it well done, just the way I like it. I don’t usually order burgers in restaurants because they are always undercooked, but this was just right. I was very pleased! We had a great time with the whole family eating out together, which is a rare treat for us, and we were all super stuffed.
Since my homemade birthday dinner keeps getting bumped, I’m supposed to get it today after church. I asked for my favorite…rosemary-crusted lamb chops and steamed and buttered baby potatoes with mint sauce and any kind of vegetable. Yum! I’m looking forward to it.
It’s been a really relaxing and wonderful holiday weekend! It was a great way to finish off our holiday break. Now it’s time to get back to the routine and be ready for school tomorrow!
I hope you all have a blessed and happy 2016!
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