A Birthday Meal

I celebrated my birthday this week. Yes, I know, it's only a week and a half after Christmas. You don't have to tell me that. This was not always fun growing up.

You know, getting everyone's toys they didn't like from Christmas as a birthday gift. Or celebrating my birthday before we all went back to school from Christmas break, so half of my friends were still on vacation and couldn't come to my party. Or not getting to bring in cupcakes for your birthday because my birthday was always on a day when we hadn't gone back to school yet. BOO! :)

But it wasn't all bad - you know the let down when you are a kid on Christmas night after you've opened all the gifts and played with all the toys, and then you think to yourself that the next time you get to open gifts again won't be until your birthday? (Oh come on, you know you all thought it!!) Well, for me, that just happened to be only a week and a half away! Of course I never have those thoughts anymore - you know, I meant when I was a kid! Don't judge me.

As I've gotten older, doing the big birthday dinner out to eat with a bunch of friends always sort of overwhelms me. I have a difficult time choosing somewhere that I might like, that will be able to include everyone, fit everyone, etc. My husband and I were talking about this, and I mentioned that I would just love to have a few of my friends over for a small dinner party, with a good meal, and something really special. Well, let's just say I have the best husband! Boy did he deliver. He threw the best dinner party, with a meal that he made (all my favorites, and I didn't do a thing), even made a cake from scratch, and had a few close friends over for a really fun and relaxed time! It was great!

Yes, he did need a little help and some extra time- okay a lot of help, at one point every person (except me) was doing something in the kitchen to get the dinner ready, and he said to me "how do you do this by yourself and have it ready on time" Practice, lots of practice!

He went the extra mile to make everything special: coordinating dinner ware and table runner (yes he went out and bought some of this stuff!!), candles, roses, all my favorite foods, he even coordinated the wrapping paper for my gift with the color scheme. I should take notes! :)
We had Chicken Bryan (a Carraba's recipe that we figured out the recipe for), two cheese risotto, balsamic roasted asparagus, and raspberry laced vanilla cake that had this amazing buttercream frosting with raspberry liqueur in it!


I had an amazing time with lots of laughs, love, and amazing food!

Got one amazing gift I wasn't expecting - an Apple MacBook - more blogs!!

And I have one amazing husband to thank for all this! Thanks to my husband and friends who made this a really special night! Best birthday in a long while!


What about you? What's your favorite thing to do for your birthday?