Monday, February 09, 2009

Have you ever noticed that there are more than a dozen ice cubes in an ice cube tray? For some unknown reason, I had assumed there were twelve cubes per tray, just like eggs. Not so. In fact, each of my differently colored trays holds a different amount of ice. No ice standards, evidently.

My dear ones,
Twas the week before Christmas and all through the land
A li'l bug waited to show his hand
He soared through the house with each an achoo
We just had spewings and sputterings. Welcome Christmas Flu!

So Christmas was...ummm...interesting. Perhaps we've had better. We visited with my side of the family and then shared the bug with Steven's side too. I think the final score for people getting sick was 13-1. Not good odds. Although we enjoyed spending some of the time together, we'll have to work out better details with fewer bathroom trips next time. Smile.

Well, of course you're probably just dying to know how my infamously self-centered birthday went this year. Being a person highly addicted to lists, I wrote down twelve options of funness first. I then let each one in my family veto (quite graciously in my humble opinion since it was my day, not theirs) one or two options. I gave them this grand opportunity so they wouldn't have to be totally embarrassed, bored, or disgusted while celebrating a good thing.

A few days ahead of time I impolitely called up some people we had briefly met a month earlier. They made the crucial mistake of telling me, "Stop by anytime; the coffee pot's always on." So I reminded them who we were and asked if Thursday at 10am would work. Can you believe they cheerfully said Yes! So we went there first on my birthday and got to know the Adam's better and wow! are they interesting people! She made a Dutch Baby or Pannakuken. Scrumptious.

Next stop on the birthday train was Pawpaw and Granny's house for a Barbarian Dinner. The house had been darkened, lit only by candles and peeping sun. Both of them dressed in peasant attire and kept referring to us as Me' Lady and so on. We're eating this over the top medieval meal without the benefit of utensils, only hunting knives! So we rip off a chunk of bread, drink soup from the bowl, and burp loudly to show our deep appreciation. We even had a menu written in official medieval words, very few of which were recognizable. I did notice that the Grog I drank looked and tasted remarkably similar to Dr. Pepper. I still can't believe how much work they put into this ultra cool experience.

Our next stop was our house to play some family games while the meatloaf and birthday cakes were baking. No, that's not a typo; cakes is plural. I chose a Pineapple Sheetcake with Cream Cheese Frosting and then a Wesson Oil Chocolate Cake with a Fudge Frosting. One really sweet and one really rich. Oh yeah! Besides if I'm gonna gain weight naturally from just getting older, the food might as well be worth it in the meantime!

The caboose of the birthday train was a Rook night with lots of our card-playing friends over for a potluck meal and tables of Rook games. Always a grand time.

Now about the intermittent events that made me cry half the day. One of my very thoughtful friends made a mailing earlier that week so that I would receive many pink and black index sized cards all day long. Many, many people wrote such kind things about either What I Love About You or I'm Thankful You. I'm not the lady they describe on those cards but it definitely gives me somewhere to aim! So I cried happy tears many times on my day. It was awesome!

It's been so long since I wrote this that I better pause and maybe finish up another day. We still have Chinese New Year's, Groundhog Day, and Lincoln's Birthday to discuss.

We love each of you in a different way. Thanks for being part of our lives.

Blessings,
Marcia for the Swann's