That's right, David joined me by turning 37 on October 25th. (it is great living in Asia where people say: 'you look so young' or fat, or old, or tired, depending on how you actually look, he happens to look young)
If we didn't gain five pounds each over the weekend, it wasn't for lack of trying.
I made my mom's cheesecake recipe. In the past I have used substitutes for sour cream and it went all wrong. For this I soured whipping cream and, other than being slightly burnt on one edge, it was fabulous. I made a strawberry sauce (2 cups of sugar!) to go with it, but I preferred it plain with black coffee---soooooo good.
On Friday night I also almost burnt 'Paula Dean's biscuits' but they turned out great too, we had those for birthday breakfast: Bacon and Egg Biscuits. (I ordered the bacon from the provincial capital).
We actually celebrated Friday night, so we grilled hotdogs (also from the provincial capital), I made Pioneer Women's Onion Straws (family fave now), and had baked beans (also from the capital). Can you tell how special birthdays are, hardly anything local (but cream cheese is local but imported so quite expensive).
Earlier in the day I took the kids out to buy gifts, each a lego gift 'to do with daddy' (this is what I coached them to say as David opened the gifts). I thought this might be utter fail, but it turned out fun. They also bought chocolate and cookies that he loves and we never buy.
Tobin had his gift in the shopping bag still. He is waiting while David opens my gift.
My gift was a book via Kindle and these Dewberry Cookies which are imports found here. Not to mention the cheesecake, onion straws, and biscuits all from scratch. I love to bake, so this was a delight for me, and of course quite tasty!
Sophia made this special box to put her gifts in...
Hershey's Chocolate. This, too, has just started showing up a local grocery store, it is expensive so we never buy it.
Tobin's gift, Hershey's kisses and a Lego Helicopter.
Tender kisses from Bella.
Bella hid her gift and made him find it. What is it? He shakes the box.
Oh, a lego airplane "for us to do together" Bella said.
David had a bad cold coming on, all of our family does. He felt pretty bad on his real birthday. His body also has various aches too so he regularly gets a massage from the blind guys up the road (they are professionals, very good, and all a local minority, so David really chats it up with them). On this day, Bella just wanted to be with her daddy, so Tobin and Bella took books and toys up there with him while he got his massage. What a birthday blessing. They did well.
Happy Birthday David! I love doing life with you.
