Saturday, December 19, 2009

It's my birthday...

Anna's Birthday Cake

and I'm not crying. It had a fun lead in last night at Jo-Ann & Jonathon's with my Dad, Michael, Hal, Toran & Aurelia. Jonathon & Aurelia made the birthday cake pictured, a lemon cake with lemon cream cheese frosting, made with fresh lemons hand carried from San Diego. It was the perfect balance of sweet and sour. The candles each represent 6.375 years. Aurelia, being 8 thought having 8 candles on the cake would be a fun shared experience, with her birthday not far behind me.

The remains of the cedar planks

It was fun to have a dinner theme from my Northwest origins, near Seattle. Jonathon made cedar planked salmon, thought it needed cooking on the outside grill a bit faster, and this was the result. The salmon came out well done, but not burnt, just the way I like it! We also had fresh steamed asparagus, and a wonderful wild rice mixture with onions and mushrooms. Oh and not to forget the butternut soup starter. What a feast, and what good company. We had a poetry reading around the table using the book of poems Hal brought, and Toran accompanied the Happy Birthday song with his violin, which made for a haltingly beautiful melody. Wouldn't have it any other way.

Tonight I'm enjoying watching Miss Olivia as a cast member of "A Christmas Carol" and having dinner with her grandma, my friend Linda. My day is and is going to be fabulous!

5 comments:

Greg said...

Happy Birthday!

Zoomie said...

Sounds like a wonderful birthday all around. Glad it was happy!

kudzu said...

A belated-by-one day wish for a Happy Birthday! You share the date with my son -- so I will remember yours.

Anne said...

Glad you're having a great multi-day celebration!

Anna Haight said...

Thanks for all your good wishes!
Kudzu - I have two cousins with the same birthday too. Cool that I share it with another one!