Gotcha

Someone in our house has an impending 40th birthday. Yah....not me, I am not that old yet. I have often complained about how difficult it is to have a birthday on New Year's. Not just for me wanting to plan a special day but for my husband who has to share his day with the New Year's celebration. I know it is not the worst thing that can happen in life. But think of his Mother who was going to have a party on New Year's and went into labor. And yes his Dad is an accountant and loved the tax write-off.

I was very stumped as to what to do. Do I wait until after Christmas or try to plan something before Christmas? I wanted to surprise him with something but wasn't sure what. I went through a lot of possibilities before deciding on having a party at a restaurant with some of his friends.

The harder part was finding a restaurant. I inquired from one of our favorite restaurants which seemed ok until I heard what the minimums were for their private areas. Yikes! I thought about an Italian restaurant that I have been too with some friends. I inquired and determined they had a private room on the 3rd floor that I could have with no minimums. I didn't even have to do a fixed menu. I decided that a Sunday evening would work best. It is the holiday season and a busy time for most.

Now how to get him there. I schemed with my neighbor. The plan was that she would call me on Saturday with a story of how their plans fell through for Sunday, they had a sitter and wondered if we would like to go out to dinner. I casually asked the husband and he said ok. Part one down. On Sunday, my neighbor called me to tell me that her sitter got sick, no she never had a sitter lined up. We had planned on my niece watching all the kids.

The husband and I discussed where we would like to go, he suggested Italian (after he suggested our favorite steakhouse). So I suggested going to this Italian Restaurant. It was close and it was after all a school night.

What I failed to plan was what to say when we got there. So my friend and I went up to the hostess and didn't know what to say. They were going to take us to table 251. I said no we would like to go to the third floor. The hostess said they had a private party and luckily my friend said we are the party. So what does the hostess do, she yells out take them to the third floor. At that point my husband knew something was going on. Yes, he was surprised!

He ended up putting things together. Like the text I received from one of the people saying they could now make it and was it ok as I quickly got out of the message. The babysitter story.

Dinner was really good. We had 8 other couples celebrate with us. One couple could not make it.

Then comes the cake. I picked up the cake on Friday. As I went to put the cake in my car I dropped it. So I quickly picked up the box to get the cake to go back into the correct spot but ended up messing the side of the cake also. And just for the record the cake tasted great.

I brought my camera and forgot about it....so I didn't get one picture. I am very bummed. Happy 40th birthday....early. I love you and hope you had a great celebration!

It can't be December 12th

Wow, hard to believe that Christmas is 13 days away. I am in no way ready and I am not sure where the first 12 days of December went. Well, actually I do know what we have been doing but just seems like it is going too fast.

Basketball season has started. The boys have one practice and one game a week. The games are held on Saturday morning. The boys are playing on a 7/8 league so they are the older and much taller boys on the team. This past Saturday both E and Jay made most of the baskets. They have played very well this year.

We did manage to get our tree and decorate for Christmas this first weekend of the month. We got a beautiful tree around 9 ft tall for a really good price. Pictures will follow. I think it would be fun to go to a farm to cut our own tree but we just didn't have time this year and the weather may have played a little part in our decision.

The weather here has been so incredibly cold. It is actually the wind that is so brutal. And it has been windy here.

Every year our church holds a walk to Bethlehem and this is the first year we attended. We have been to something like this before but it in no way compares. The event was really nice and walked us through the story of the birth of Jesus. It was amazing and really cold since part of it was outside.

That evening we went out to dinner with some friends. I met the Mom a few times at different places before I actually put it all together. I met her at the elementary school right before school started at a function. I then met her again at the preschool. So she has a boy in 3rd grade and a girl in preschool with Tee and she also has an older daughter. They are such a nice family and we hope to be able to hang out with them more often.

I am finally done with one of the fundraisers and I am still working on wrapping up another. I will be glad to have all of this behind me.

I am gearing up for yet another busy week!