I am taking a break from the Italy, Spring Break, posts to post about my birthday.
Spring gets hit hard by Birthdays in our family. Starting with Anya in March and ending with Matt in June. Mine is the second birthday of the season. This year was interesting, different, but very fun! I think it probably started for me on Thursday. Probably because I made a cake to enter into the annual dessert contest for Matt's work. Making cakes always brings the feeling of celebration I think. Anyway, I made a yummy chocolate cake for the contest, and "hello", I won! So much fun, and I got another Army coin to add to our collection. It was a very serious competition too...they patterned it after those cooking contests on the Food Network. So we had three judges, two of which are professional chef's. The dessert had to be plated, and were judged on presentation, taste, and complexity. Mine did pretty well it seems.
The next day, Friday (my actual birthday), Matt took me out to lunch, brought me flowers and then LEFT me for the evening (sigh). He had a work function that evening that was strictly soldier only, no family members. They went to a castle and had dinner, while I sat at home. I ordered some Italian take-out from St. Lucia's, watched "The Help", and when Matt came home he surprised me with a red velvet cake he had made earlier and presents. Even though it was almost midnight, we rousted the kids out of bed, sang "Happy Birthday", ate cake and opened presents. So, all was not lost! He did pretty good at keeping the sacred, special feeling a Birthday brings, around. I got a fabulous Vera Bradley bag from my brother and his awesome wife (She too, shares my obsession!), and a necklace, a favorite book series from my Mom and Sister (so now I can stop checking them out from the library over and over). But, what I had really asked for, for my birthday, was Polish Pottery...
I didn't really even know what Polish Pottery was until we joined the Army. Then, I have to admit, I wasn't that crazy about it at first. But, after years and years of seeing it, being around it, and now living in Europe closer to it, It has grown on me. Now I love it. I got some awesome new dishes a while back, but they are white. So I decided that I wanted to get serving dishes in Polish Pottery to bring color to the table when we are entertaining. Some women decide on one pattern and that is all they get, but I like too many different ones to only pick one. So, to go with my eclectic personality, I am picking all different kinds. None really go together, but I am trying to only buy patterns that have some red in them. That way I can still use them in my red and apple kitchen. So, back to my birthday, Matt felt horrible for being gone on my actual day, so Saturday we did a make-up birthday. He took me to Poland, and let me pick out some Polish Pottery. Is that a cool gift or what!! Yes, I took a man pottery shopping, but we actually had a lot of fun together. I got some really pretty pieces at some pretty good prices, with only one real splurge on a pattern that wasn't discounted. Matt, getting into the shopping spirit, even picked out a new mug for himself. Can you pick it out in the picture? Yes, it is the brown mug there behind the salt and pepper shakers! He makes me laugh!
After shopping we stopped in Dresden(pictures to come in a later post) and did Rick Steve's baroque blitz walking tour. It was a fun way to end the day, strolling the streets of a European town eating cones of gelato.
This birthday will be hard to top next year :)
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