Birthday Party

little boy wanted birthday cake

Yesterday, when Katie and little boy stopped at Trader Joes, they spotted a chocolate cake, and little boy said he wanted birthday cake. It was decided that it was Christopher's birthday (although we don't really know that it was!) and they bought the cake. It wasn't a very big cake, but as you can see, it looks pretty fancy. The cake then came to our house, and the four of us had a party. We even sang Happy Birthday to Christopher. I think it's fun to find little reasons to celebrate on ordinary days, it just makes life so much better.

Wordless Wednesday

Date Night

Date nights come in many different ways. Years ago when the kids were little, we tried to go out on a regular date night whenever we could get away with it. It felt good to have some adult time alone, but also when it was just the two of us, we remembered that we still liked each other. We would often put the kids down to bed before the babysitter arrived, and then go out, sometimes for something small like nachos and a glass of wine. After the kids were grown up and out of the house, a date night might mean a walk to the lake and a stop for ice cream, or a trip to Home Depot and Culvers for supper. The thing is to call it date night, and that makes it special.

Katie asked if we could babysit little boy last night while they went out to dinner. He was already in bed when we arrived, and the house felt all cozy with a fire going in the fireplace. She had Hawaiian pizza from Papa Murphies, salad in the fridge, a box of red wine, and homemade chocolate chip cookies waiting for us.

We baked the pizza, and as we took it out of the oven, some smoke escaped, and the smoke dectector went off really loud! And it had a voice that kept repeating "fire, fire, fire", oh, my gosh! Would it wake little boy? Then right after we got the alarm to stop, music started playing in the living room, which we discovered was a clock! I said, I feel like I'm in a movie ... Composed once more, we ate our supper on Grandma Joyce's dining room table, and announced, this is a date night.

It sure felt like one. We watched Downton Abbey in front of the fire while we munched on cookies, and drank our red wine. Little boy slumbered on. It felt quite nice.

Kitchen Table

As I mentioned before, we'd been thinking about replacing our kitchen table with one that would be a little smaller, hopefully making the room feel less cramped. We looked around quite a bit, and decided that we liked the idea of buying used versus new. We found an old farm table that would need to be refinished, at an antique shop not too far away. Maybe the asking price was a little more than we wanted to pay, but we were close to buying it. We decided to think about it a couple more days, and as we were driving home, we saw another small shop we'd not noticed before, a store that had higher end furniture and items that had been donated, with proceeds that would then be donated to charity. Wow, is all I can say! It was jam packed with stuff, but so much cool stuff! We told them we were looking for a table, and they said there might be a small one in one of the rooms. We did have to look closely to find it ...

The store was about ready to close the first time we stopped by, so we went back the next day and ended up buying the table. I told a man working there, that this store was amazing, and he told me that he'd started the store a year ago, in his garage! I had also found a board book for little boy that was full of cars and animals and lots of details, his favorite kind of book. When I went up to pay for the table and book, I told the lady that my grandson would love this book, and then she told me to just take it ... We had also found six wooden press back chairs at another antique store in Hopkins that we liked, and went to buy those. The stain on the chairs is a bit darker than the table, but we like the contrast.

Jake and Brianna also needed a table for their place, and I decided to gift them the one we were replacing. What made this such a good idea in my mind, was that the table is an oak table that I had bought in the early 1980's, right after finishing nursing school. I had sanded, stained, and varnished all the pieces. And then Bruce, my new boyfriend at the time, had put the table together for me. I'm sure that Debbie probably got a little tired of seeing all the wood pieces laying all over our living room floor, complete with sanding paper, buckets of stain, and varnish. But I did finish my table, and I was very proud. Bruce then suggested that we also give them the four wooden chairs he'd made in high school. The complete table set would have sentimental meaning, and would stay in the family. They liked the idea! So on another very snowy, Minnesota day, we drove the table and chairs out to them.

It looks pretty good in their place! And, all of us have decided that we like our "new to us" table and chairs.

Katie And Avi Host A Party

We were all invited over to Katie and Avi's house the Sunday after New Years. It was too cold to take Mom out with temps below zero, and even colder windchill, but hopefully there will be other chances to bring her over come Spring. We had four kinds of pizza, fresh fruit, and other sweet and salty nibblers. I brought shortbread cookies that Jake had made for Christmas, holiday bugels that Bruce had made, and some of the candies in the Harry and David Tower of Treats that Diana had sent us. We toasted the New Year in with sparkling pear and apple cider, and little boy rode his car with shopping cart attached around the kitchen, taking Christopher and Bushy with. It was a fun afternoon, and I told Katie that I wouldn't mind if she were to do this sort of thing every month!

Winter Lights At The Arboretum

The Wednesday before Christmas, we went with Pa and Richard to see the Winter Lights display at the Minnesota Arboretum. It was a cold night to be out, but a good adventure, and fun. And I do wish I were more of a cold weather person, living in Minnesota and all. I have to sometimes push myself to do these things. I dug around in my closet to find my long underwear, and luckily it still fit. We ate supper in the restaurant before seeing the display, and had coconut chicken curry over jasmine rice, and pie. (Pa and Richard split a piece of pecan, and Bruce and I split a piece of strawberry rhubarb.) As we looked at the display, we kept taking our gloves off to take photos, and that was cold, too! But I've decided that the one silver lining to having to wear a mask, is that it does help to keep your face warm in the winter. Afterwards, we chatted for a bit while sipping hot cider. Mom kept calling me while we were there (she was having one of her lonely nights) and it was kind of distracting. I answered most of her calls, but after we got into the car to go home, I saw there were six missed texts from Mark. Mom had fallen again. Then I felt bad for feeling frustrated from all the calls! But, I guess we all need a chance to take a break once in awhile, and try to take care of ourselves so we can continue to care for others. We're only human. Oh, and then after I got home and into bed, I suddenly remembered that I had forgotten to bring a present I wanted to give to Pa...

And, this is Joan, an old nursing school friend of mine. Today, when I looked at Facebook, Joan had posted these photos of her visit to the Arb, so gorgeous that I had to share. Joan takes the prettiest pictures!

Now that we've renewed our membership to the Arboretum, I'm thinking that more regular visits there (especially in warmer weather!) are in order.