Birthdays

        I am no longer the answer. I have completed my 42 year and moved on. This year Denise and Jason invited us to a winter ball. It is an English country dance like they had in the Regency era. The theme this year was the Nutcracker masquerade. I decided to do a play on the sugar plum fairy. I spent the better part of the week sewing up my dress. I had intended to make Daniel's vest too, but due to time constraints, we purchased his outfit. Although I had made his pants previously, so there it that.

    On my birthday I received flowers from Daniel and Jessica, and she sent along some chocolate frogs.

Aren't they pretty?

    I also stubbed the heck out of my pinky toe. Poor Teddy had to bring me ice for it. I think I may have broken it. It was dark purple all the way around. I hope dancing will be ok. We finished the night by watching Lizzy wrestle.

She did really well, she took third in her weight class. It was the Lady Pirates meet. 

     Devon turned 11 on the 11th. His golden birthday was not so golden in his eyes. December birthdays are hard, there is so much going on it's easy to get a little lost in the shuffle. Lizzy had wrestling and we went to get our Christmas tree. I had delivered cupcakes to his class so he was happy with that. We had asked Devon if he would be okay if we got the tree beforehand, but I think he said yes out of duty. As it was already a week into December, and we really only had that evening, we went to Lowes for our tree. The selection was abysmal and it took a bit to find a worker to assist us. 

   As always, the kids couldn't agree on a tree. Every year as we are standing before our intended victim and the eveitable yells of each tree's virtues and flaws gain momentum, I wonder what possessed me to perpetuate this tradition. In the end, we let Devon have the last say, he...didn't care so we went with the majority vote. Henry was deeply insulted that the tree of his choosing was not selected and began sulking full bore. He was running and hiding and creating general chaos. Luckily the only nonreletive to witness this display of extreme unruliness was the solitary worker and he was distracted with cutting the tree for us. They had a display set up for pictures and so of course I had to partake.

      Daniel took the tag and went to pay, I corraled the kids and herded them towards the exit, Henry ran off and so in the midst of it all, I ended up only having 2 kids with me. We went to the van that now held a tree, but no Bartholomews. I tried to call Daniel to see if they had followed him. He didn't answer, then Lizzy and Charles came out. Now all we were missing were the middle children. Daniel showed up with them a bit later. Turns out we were supposed to get a discount on the tree, but it didn't ring up right so he had to go back to get it fixed. All this to say, by the time we arrived home, it was bedtime.

        We didn't do presents or cake. We didn't sing Happy Birthday. It was a little sad. I had planned to take him shopping the next day for a lamp. He had asked for a replacement one and I didn't know what kind he wanted so I needed to take him with me. As you can imagine he was quite disappointed in the evening's events and was not appeased the next morning. He awoke around 4 am and would not go back to sleep. I asked him if he would be okay going shopping with me after school and we could get something to eat. He was despondent but agreed. I commiserated with him, after all my birthday was largely unnoticed by my kids. I had no cake, no singing, none of the regular trappings of birthday celebrations. Chagrined he accepted my olive branch and directly after he returned from the bus, I whisked him off.

        Finding a lamp proved difficult, after three stores, we found something he liked and a few other items too. I asked him what he would like to do for dinner, and he asked for pizza. So we ordered pizza and then picked it up on the way home. After enjoying some slices we had him open his presents. 

        He was excited to get the new crossstich and sketchbook, especially when he opened them up and realized their full glory. Besides the lamp, I gave him a tie tack with the same stone the Portland temple was built with. I had bought them when Lizzy first turned 12, I got tie-tacks for the boys and necklaces for the girls. I had not anticipated moving out of that temple district when this day came.  I will need to get new ones for the Kansas City temple.  I asked him if it was a better birthday now and he was happy to say yes. Hurray! 

    To finish up my birthday, I continued sewing up until the dance. I did finish the night before so I had time to alter Daniel's costume. I had ordered it a bit large because the reviews said it ran small. It was too big, but nothing a few well-placed darts couldn't hide. Please enjoy this picture of Daniel getting ready:

        The dance was in Moberly, about 2 hours away so we had to leave Charles in charge once again. Lizzy had a 2 day tournament, (which she took 5th in!) The day before we had Charles watch the kids while Daniel and I went to his work party. It was a fun family-owned steak place called Jess and Jims. I liked meeting his coworkers and boy did they have some stories to tell. 

        Anyway, as we drove to our final destination we sailed passed quite a few small towns reminiscent of my old Yakama drives. We passed the biggest pecan I had ever seen in Brunswick. I did snap a pic on our way home. It was blurry and dark but here you go:

        Someday I will return and bask in its glory properly. They have a pecan festival in Oct. We made it to the venue and met up with Denise and Jason. They looked amazing. We met the dates of some of my nephews. A few were running late. The dance starts at 5 and goes quite late so it's fine to arrive a little later. We had dance cards at our settings, that was a fun touch.

       Dinner was more finger foods and served in the middle of the dancing as was proper for an English ball. We had danced quite a bit by this point. It was nice since they taught you all the steps as you go.

    We had a splendid time but had to leave early to get home. Next year I will bring my gloves! It was hard to hold on sometimes as we worked up quite a sweat and my gown was quite heavy. We needed to get gas and luckily there was a station across the street, but as we pulled in Daniel realized he was without his wallet. He had changed trousers several times before we left the house and had neglected to replace his wallet as we left. His look of panic was priceless. He didn't know what to do so I said that we could bum some money from his sister. It was hilarious, but he did ask for some money and I promptly Venmoed it back. We made it home without incident. It was quite the night!