Celebrating a birthday in January is always a roulette game. Growing up, I had several parties cancelled because of icy weather, like my 6th and 9th birthday parties.
This year, I braced myself for a low key birthday lunch that would happen sometime during the month. If we had good weather, it would be on my birthday. ..if not, we would wait. Just a week prior, we had single digit temperatures, and 8 inches of snow that stuck for 3 days. At midweek, the temperatures rose to 60 and the snow disappeared. By my birthday, it was a glorious 65 degrees and blue skies.
Birthdays are generally typical days and include animal care, errands and even work. This year, my birthday fell of Saturday so I had time for a haircut, and to pick up goat food and chicken scratch before lunch. Ah birthday lunch….
I wanted German food for my birthday celebration. Jim researched a few places and decided that we would try a Russian place. He said that it’s all on the same continent, and the food is similar. I stopped trying to understand his logic and agreed to try new food; it’s better that way. We picked up some friends and drove to the restaurant, an authentic, family-owned, no frills place. The specials were pierogies and homemade kielbasa. Jim wanted kraut and vegetables. I could tell this was going to be interesting: they were out of kraut. We ended up ordering 4 plates of food and splitting them. Jim had cabbage, pickled vegetables, mashed potatoes and carrots. I had kielbasa, cabbage and potatoes. Kelly finished my chicken cutlet, and his own kielbasa and potatoes. It was like a food swap, and I just laughed.
Jim said, “it’s good, but I really wanted the saurkraut.” Lisa replied, “if you wanted kraut we could’ve gone to the German place 2 miles south of here.” Jim looked astonished that such a place existed, and I just rolled my eyes.
This is where you just shake your head and all agree that next time, Lisa is picking the restaurant. It’s never a dull moment. My birthday was filled with good food, good fellowship, great laughs and family. I can’t ask for more than that. As for cake, I had tres leches from the Cuban bakery where we skipped the candles in order to avoid calling the local fire department. I really did not want to have to get a burning permit just to light candles on the cake and explain to the forest rangers that it was just a birthday cake.
Raised By A Village 