Birthdays!

This year we were with three of our nieces/nephews on their birthdays, which isn't typical because they live far away from us. In May we celebrated Joel's 12th birthday at Great Wolf Lodge, and last month we celebrated Jenna's 21st and Nathan's 15th birthdays at our home. I made Joel a carrot cake for his birthday and bought donuts and cookies for everyone another night on that trip. Jenna's birthday was the day before Thanksgiving this year. There were eleven people here for Jenna's birthday dinner: our family, Grandpa, her mom, Jenna, Toby, Andrew, and Nathan. She requested chili, rice, and peanut butter cookies. Nathan's birthday was the day after Thanksgiving. He requested sausage biscuits for breakfast. I bought four mylar birthday balloons, and the kids hung birthday banners throughout the house. We watched the movie "Sound of Freedom" and played games which included using our new foosball table. Grandpa slept in Oliver's bedroom. Nathan slept on the bottom bunk in Ian's bedroom, and Oliver slept on an air mattress in Ian's bedroom. Toby, Andrew, Yvonne, and Jenna used the two sofa beds downstairs. 

Ian's birthday (Dec 12) is very close to Aunt Janet's (Dec 9), my dad's (Dec 10), and Paul's dad's (Dec 20). From 2010-2017 we celebrated my dad's birthday and Ian's birthday together with my dad (2010-2015 also with my mom, 2016 just with my dad, and in 2017 with my dad and Margie). The last five years we only saw my dad at Christmas, not in conjunction with his birthday or Ian's birthday. In 2018 we started a tradition of going to Great Wolf Lodge for one night to celebrate Ian's birthday. We weren't able to go in 2020, but we went every other year since December 2018. Because we spent 3 nights at Great Wolf Lodge with the Towfighis earlier this year, we decided to give Kalahari a whirl this year for Ian's birthday. Although we're still getting a discount because we're going with a homeschool group, it costs a lot more than Great Wolf Lodge. We decided to try this Kalahari at least once. The kids and I were at the Kalahari in Ohio once in 2016. My dad is planning to drive up to Pennsylvania on Saturday so he will spend his 80th birthday with us this year. He'll then be seeing a show in Lancaster with Andrea. It will be the first time since 2017 that we were able to celebrate his birthday with him. 

Over the past 25 years I can only think of two times when we didn't spend time with several members of both sides of our family at Christmas. In 2020 we weren't with any relatives. In December 2022 the only person from Paul's side of the family that we saw was his dad. It had been almost exactly two years since Nadia, Ian, or I saw Al or Millie. Oliver had seen Uncle Al in March of 2022 when he took him to a concert. Because we are going to Chicago for Christmas this year, and because Al and Millie are very busy at their bakery in December, we ended up celebrating Ian's 14th birthday, Pop Pop's 82nd birthday, and Christmas yesterday. Shawn lives with Al and Millie. My kids haven't seen their cousin since 2021. He didn't come yesterday. I served ham steaks, au gratin potatoes, sweet potatoes, applesauce, cranberry sauce, mixed vegetables, and homemade rolls yesterday. Al and Millie brought cookies and a birthday cake. I think it was the earliest Christmas gift exchange we've ever had, but the kids weren't complaining about that, ha ha! 

The pictures in this post are from Nadia and Ian's concert in November, the day we volunteered at the Operation Christmas Child distribution center in Baltimore, the birthday cake from yesterday, and from the night Nadia and Ian sang at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Lewisburg. Other highlights from the past two weeks would include seeing the movie The Shift in the theater, seeing the musical "Not so perfect Christmas" and having dinner at Texas Roadhouse with Jenna, and getting a new dishwasher installed in our home. The one we bought eleven years ago decided to stop working over Thanksgiving while there were eleven people under our roof. The new one is much nicer than the one that was hauled away last week! I'm very appreciative of dishwashers, especially when we have company!