Happy Birthday to Me!

On December 4th, I celebrated 42 years of life. Honestly, in my mind I thought I was turning 41, but whatever. I had a lovely birthday. It was peaceful and low-key, but the days leading up to it weren't. Watson was injured running into the leg of a trampoline and when he was still limping over a week later, I finally took him to the vet.

Going to the vet during a pandemic means you have to stay in your car the entire time while your dog is escorted inside and then the vet communicates with you by phone. $460 and 3 hours later, we found out he had broken his ilium (part of his pelvis). Thankfully no surgery was required, but he does have small fragments of bone chipped off that might cause chronic pain later in life. Oh, and when I was taking him to the vet, my van wouldn't start and I had to call a tow truck and my dad. It was a whole evening of drama. So, I really didn't want to do anything for my birthday. Tom and I both took the day off work, as per tradition, and we picked up my favorite crepes to go from Nyam Nyam Cafe to enjoy as we watched a Christmas movie.

 Then we took a long nap. My parents brought over dinner and my birthday cake.

This year I picked enchiladas for my birthday meal...growing up I almost always chose scalloped potatoes with sausage. After dinner, my parents went home and we decorated the Christmas tree. 

 I couldn't have asked for a better 41st or 42nd birthday.

November Highlights

Soccer season ended for both boys.

 I bought a new bike as an early birthday present to myself.

 

We FINALLY taught Sam how to ride a bike. Now he is always begging Tom or I to go for bike rides with him.

 We celebrated Thanksgiving at home, just the five of us. Tom smoked a turkey and I prepared all of the sides. It was nice and relaxing. 

 We bought ourselves a small firepit on Black Friday and we have been making s'mores multiple nights a week ever since.

This is Halloween...in a pandemic

 Here are our Halloween-themed activities in October.

Tunk-or-Treat at the church was a very rainy affair, but they couldn't move it inside because...Corona.

Jack decided early on that he wanted to be a Greaser.  The book, "The Outsiders" had a big impact on him.  And by impact, I mean he was sobbing. And then promptly read it again.  He had me order him a faux leather jacket and a white shirt to complete the costume.  As for the hair, he practiced a couple of weeks early with pomade.  That stuff would NOT come out.  He had the greasiest hair for almost a week before I busted out the Dawn dish soap.  So, for the actual days of dressing up, I went old-school and introduced him to L.A. Looks gel and AquaNet hairspray.

Of course, we painted pumpkins.  Ellie was not interested this year (the joys of teens) so we gave her pumpkin to cousin Naomi.

Ellie didn't join us for Trick-or-Treating (beause she old), but she did have 3 friends over to watch "The Witches."  Tom and I took the boys around the neighborhood.  I*t was fun to see the many creative ways people had of delivering candy during a pandemic.

We always have to stop at Grandma's house!

Jack's Big Birthday Surprise

 This year Jack had a birthday that I will never be able to top.  It came about rather last minute.  Like I normally do for my kids' birthdays, I had already taken the day off and arranged for my friend, a retired teacher, to sub.  About 2 weeks before Jack's birthday, I was talking to my sister and she mentioned wanting to take her youngest son on a trip to Disney World for fall break...just the two of them.  She then disregarded it because of cost, but it put the idea in my mind that maybe Jack and I could meet them there on his birthday.  This was so uncharacteristic of me.  I never do anything spur of the moment without months of planning.  But Dianna said she was on board if I was.  I booked the tickets using my vouchers from our cancelled Vegas trip, arranged for my mom to keep Sam, asked my friend to sub for one more day, and then went about trying to pull off the biggest surprise of Jack's life.

I was so determined to keep this a secret that I didn't even tell Sam or Ellie.  I had Rosie make Disney shirts for us and I ordered Disney masks.  

On Sunday, I told Jack that since Tom couldn't take Monday off for his birthday, were were going to go somewhere to celebrate together.  Because we were all wearing A&M shirts, he assumed we were going to an A&M game.  Even when we pulled up to the airport, he still had no clue where we were.  To be fair, he has only flown once before in his life so he isn't all that familiar with airports.  To say he was surprised when I said we were going on a plane trip would be an understatement.  He kept saying, "I can't believe you are taking me out of state for my birthday!"

When we landed in Orlando, I told him an Uber was picking us up.  Instead, it was my sister and Krew.  

We grabbed dinner at Panera and then checked into our hotel.  He still had no idea what we were doing so I gave him his birthday present that night...inside was his Disney shirt, his magic band, and his Disney mask.  

Monday morning, his actual birthday, we woke up early and were at Magic Kingdom before opening.  We spent the entire day there unntil it closed.  Throughout the day, Jack kept thanking me over and over again.  He said it was his best birthday ever and one he would never forget.

We had to leave for the airport Tuesday morning by 5:00am (4:00am Texas time).  I was tired, my feet had blisters, and I had the worst chafing of my life, but that trip was definitely worth it.  I loved spending quality time with Jack.  And it also reminded me to loosen up, have some fun, and be a little spontaneous.