When we first married, our tradition was to take the entire family out to dinner to celebrate each birthday. After a few years, however, that got very expensive and kind of old. Been there, done that.
About two years ago, Floyd Michael and I found, by chance, a lovely little Italian restaurant in Diamond Bar, and celebrated our anniversary there. The decor was beautiful, the music was just perfect, the service fantastic. It was much nicer than a chain restaurant, and had a charming, upscale, romantic/feminine feel to it that we loved. We talked about how nice it would be to take our girls, especially, to this restaurant. Somehow our talk meandered from taking our children out one at a time to a nicer restaurant than our usual, to birthdays. Bingo! The idea was born. During the upcoming year, we would take out each "child" alone with their parent for their birthday celebration.
Devin and George were first, as they have January birthdays. I think George had barbeque. Devin and I went for sushi. Schedules being what they are in our crazy household, Devin didn't get his birthday dinner until some time in February, but we did go. One on one time was nice. Choosing just the right venue was crazy fun.
Linda was supposed to go to the restaurant that started it all, but it was CLOSED when she and Floyd went out. They ended up at a local barbeque restaurant. So much for the original plan!
Destiny is not a fan of fine dining, and really has a limited palate. We started out for BJs because she wanted to try a Pizooki. Apparently it was prom night or something, but it was PACKED. Same with the next two restaurants we tried. I thought that maybe we were going to starve before we found a place! She really wanted a steak, and we ended up at the same BBQ restaurant Floyd and Linda had gone to. Go figure! The girl got her steak, and we had a story to tell.
Dan wanted salad, and cheesecake. We actually "cheated" on his birthday, and went with his grandmother. I'm pretty sure he liked the extra attention, and I know my mom loved being included.
Eric was last in line, having a November birthday. I had not seen him for awhile, and was talking to him about getting together for lunch or something. He wanted me to come along when he had his birthday lunch with Floyd. I explained to him that I couldn't go because of our birthday theme of the year. The tone of his voice let me know he thought we were kind of crazy at that point! I'm not sure where he and Floyd went, but am so glad they got to have some time alone together.
We enjoyed our theme year so well, we decided to pick another theme for this year. After much discussion, we decided to do dessert parties. For each birthday, we would choose a different dessert and get as many of the family together for the celebration as possible.
George and Devin were first. We had banana splits for their birthdays. Amazingly, and unhappily, Vons called Devin into work on his birthday. He actually missed most of his own party. I was NOT NOT NOT happy about that. The banana splits were a hit. Jason particularly loved the maraschino cherries (I finally sent the jar home with them so they could dole them out to him).
Amanda (Eric's girlfriend) came next. We decided to go to Cold Stone for hers. Unfortunately, it turned out that they had no inside seating, and it was cold outside (okay, California cold, but still cold). Must remember not to do ice cream for the winter birthdays.
Linda comes next, and she was the only one we knew from the beginning. Friday night we will be having pie to celebrate Linda's birthday. I really wanted to learn to make pie for this, but really haven't had a lot of time to practice. I think she deserves real pie from someone who knows how to make it for her birthday, rather than my first attempt.
I think we will go out for Pizooki's for Destiny's birthday. We shall see. Dan is very likely to get cheesecake. Again, we shall see what he feels like at the time. We don't know where Eric will be for his birthday. I may have to send him a gift certificate for a birthday treat, and call him while he eats it.
I can hardly wait to pick out a theme for next year!
