Happy Birthday To Me

I turned 36 two days before Christmas.  I kept thinking, Well this is the second time I've been knocked up for a birthday.  The Kid was born in January, so I was good and fat on my 30th.  Waaay better than my 27th birthday, which was spent sitting in an unemployment office.  Who lays off their entire staff a week before Christmas!?

Since having kids, my main birthday wish is always to have a night out, at a real restaurant, with adults only.  This year was no exception.  The Dad made reservations at a restaurant we had never been to and my sis and BIL joined us, as they always do. 

They brought a yummy bottle of wine and we did as well.

The food was AMAZING.  Seriously.  Every single thing we ordered was good.  Better than good. 

To start, we ordered the deep fried Brussels sprouts, potato-blue cheese croquettes with a garlic butter dipping sauce, and bread with a roasted tomato spread.

We shared a salad that was grilled kale, roasted beets and blue cheese, with a creamy horseradish dressing.

For dinner, my sister ordered butternut squash dumplings, which were reminiscent of gnocchi.  My BIL had halibut with a spinach-mushroom sauce.  The Dad got the best burger I've ever tasted in my life.  I had a delicious steak with Parmesan gratin potatoes.

Aaaand, just in case you doubt my sincerity, or think I'm exaggerating when I say the food was amazing, here's proof.

For dessert, we ordered banana cream pie and chocolate-nutella mousse.

Again, they didn't suck even a little bit.

Here are a couple child-free, enjoying a rare dinner out, happy faces.

Before heading out to dinner, we dropped all the kids at my mom's house and opened presents.  

I'm pretty spoiled. 

I got all kinds of good stuff, including a box full of cheese from my sister.  

Yep.  Cheese.  And goodies to eat with cheese.  

Did I mention I got a box of cheese?

And now, what I'm about to show you is going to make you really jealous.  But it's too cool not to share, so here goes.

My brother-in-law made the frame out of old fence boards.  The glass is from an old storm window they tore out and he used a Dremmel to etch the flower into the glass. Awesome, right?  He made it for outside, but I'd be afraid it would get broken.  :(  It's temporarily hanging in my hall.  

Once all the Christmas stuff is put away (any volunteers?), I'll find a permanent home for it.  I'm thinkin' it would be pretty darn cool hanging in front of a window too.

All in all, a good day to have a birthday!

Annual Christmas Gift Exchange

In addition to the numerous holiday festivities, my mom, sister, and I, all have birthdays in December.  My plan was to post each event as they happened,  but time got away from me.  So since there's still a few days left in December, I'm doing it now, starting with my sister and brother-in-law's annual gift exchange party.  The gift rule is, bring something either homemade, something you already own that you're re-gifting, or a certificate for a service.  For example, I walked away with 2 hours worth of babysitting OR a bottle of wine from the giver's stash.  :o)

I made Infused Vodka.  I finally found lavender at Cost Plus, so I was able to give that flavor a go.  My brother-in-law walked away with it and brought it over Tuesday night for my mom's birthday (more on that later).  Um, OMG good.  My sister mixed up Simply Lemonade with the Lavender Vodka and served it in a martini glass with a sugared rim and a lemon twist.  Seriously delicious. 

The Dad made homemade cheese - I know, right?! - and my sister ended up with THAT living at her house too.  She brought that over on Tuesday as well, and we all got to dig in.  SO GOOD.  Nice work Chach!

They had the party the day before her birthday this year, so we threw in a birthday cake to celebrate.  Friends of ours also surprised everyone by getting engaged at the party, so it was a fun-filled night.

The party is always potluck, so I took along a Rosemary Wreath Appetizer and Baked Ricotta.  The Baked Ricotta was nummy - at least for someone who gets excited about hot cheese with a side of bread.  You can get the recipe here.  The wreath app was inspired by all the ones floating around Pinterest this month.  You can see a good example of one here.

Here are mine:

And I may or may not have been hovering around my sister's nibble platter.

Yes, those are bacon-wrapped dates.

And yes, I could eat my weight in them.

I offered to donate the birthday cake, so I made the Crackly Pear Cake, since my sister had been talking about it ever since the first time I made it.  My original post for that is here.  It's all kinds of good, people.  I also made the Chocolate Peppermint Cheesecake Squares, which were delicious as well.  Figure friendly, not so much.  But I've never been one to care much about overdoing it.

My brother-in-law organizes a boys-against-girls Jeopardy game every year that, without fail, brings out the nasty in people.  Bragging rights are a big deal in our group.  In the past, it has been 3 x 5 cards on poster board.  This year, he took it up a notch and busted out the Power Point.

Oh yeah, it's serious business.  During the last category, Final Jeopardy, each couple had to do a sensory test.  One was blindfolded while the other one had them touch, smell, or taste something.  The gender who was blindfolded, earned the points for their respective team with a correct answer.  The last couple ended up being a marriage proposal.  My brother-in-law was in on it, but the rest of us were like, what the what?!

It was pretty cool.  You can read the whole story with more pictures, including a pregnant chick on the floor in the background, on Makaila's blog here.

'Twas a fun night all the way around.

Next up, ya know, if all goes according to plan (ha ha), I'll get some birthday pics on here.

Baby Belly: 33 Weeks

I think after my last baby belly post, my body finally realized it was pregnant.  I'm definitely feelin' it now.  The little things you forget about are trumpeting their existence.  Putting on my shoes.  Shaving.  Attempting to get close enough to the sink to wash the dishes without my back feeling like it will implode.  Getting a decent night sleep without tossing and turning, trying to get comfortable, or having to get up to pee.  Getting up from a seated position without making a grunting noise.  Getting in and out of the car.  Having to pee every 45 minutes.  Yeah, those are a pretty good example of things that have drastically changed in the last two weeks.  In the whole scheme of things, nothing too serious to complain about, though.  Especially compared to other nightmare pregnancies I hear about.  I'll take the uncomfortable if it comes with overall, feeling good and being healthy.

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and all is still well.  I'm still measuring about two weeks less than my due date, but was told again it isn't a big deal.  In two weeks, I'll meet with the surgeon who delivered both The Kid and The Girl and will most likely get a Baby Day date on the calender at that point.  Crazy.  It's almost here.

Here's Baby at 33 weeks: