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Thursday, December 30, 2010

Once Upon a Birthday

Today is my birthday. My 66th birthday, to be precise. Apparently, 66th birthdays are earth-shaking events, because I was awakened this morning by a shaking bed and rattling windows as Indiana was experiencing a 4.2 earthquake, a rare occurrence in this part of the country.

That's probably the most excitement there will be on this birthday, because my dear husband has been sick since Christmas and isn't going to be able to take me out for dinner or even muster up much enthusiasm for the occasion.

So I'll have to let a memory of a past birthday celebration suffice for this one.

Four years ago, my good friend, Sandra, was being visited by two of her granddaughters from Chicago, CoCo and LuLu. They put together a little surprise for me, with Sandra baking my favorite, a chocolate sheet cake, and with CoCo and LuLu adding their flair to the decoration on the cake.



In addition, Sandra, CoCo, and LuLu had gone shopping and picked out the perfect gifts for me. Each of them had selected a set of designer paper plates and matching napkins, knowing that that is the tableware of choice in our house.

And then the gifts were delivered in a personally decorated shopping bag. CoCo decorated one side of the bag.


And LuLu decorated the other side.

I saved the bag. It may show up at one or both of their weddings some day.

12 comments:

  1. What a sweet post, Linda. I remember that celebration of your birthday particularly fondly too. I remember how the girls loved decorating that cake with your OTHER favorite chocolate -- M&M's!

    I'm glad Marilyn suggested we celebrate your birthday tomorrow. That will be fun!

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  2. Sandra - I'm always touched that your granddaughters treat me like family, so that birthday surprise was a very special one to me. Of course, the chocolate helped, too. :)

    So far, my nicest birthday gift today is finding out that Marilyn reads my blog! I'm looking forward to our lunch tomorrow.

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  3. Happy Birthday Linda! I love memories like this...very sweet of your friend and her granddaughters. I keep things like this too. I hope you have a wonderful lunch with the girls tomorrow! XX

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  4. Thank you, Lori. Sandra and her family have been special friends to Doug and me for many years. We don't have much family, so they graciously share theirs.

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  5. Sweet memories indeed. I wondered if this was a special recipe cake from scratch?Well it is nice to see you do celebrate, I have made my cakes for quite sometime, if I even get that far along.Happy Birthday, again and again.

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  6. OOTP - This IS a scratch recipe, based on the Texas Cake recipe that was so popular in the sixties and seventies. It's baked in a jellyroll pan, so the cake is thin, making the ratio of cake to frosting very pleasing indeed. I can send you the recipe if you're interested. If you're a chocolate lover, this is the cake for you. Thanks so much for the birthday wishes.

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  7. Happy Birthday Linda.... You are a little behind me (I turned 68 in August). Sorry to hear that your hubby is sick. Hope he feels better soon.. He can make it up to you!!!!!!!!

    Cute cake and birthday bag...

    I heard about your earthquake on the news... Wondered if you 'felt' it.... Wow--what a day to have a birthday.....

    Happy New Year.
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  8. Thanks for the birthday wishes, Betsy. The earthquake was just a little added "treat" for the day. Happy New Year to you, too.

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  9. Oh I'm so sorry that I'm late to this post and for your birthday. A very happy belated Birthday to you, dear Linda. I'm so glad your didn't allow any more birthdays to go by before sharing your lovely thoughts with us out here in the Blogiverse. Many, many happy returns of the day!

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  10. Thank you, Hilary. Belated wishes just make the occasion last a little longer. :)

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  11. Happy Birthday! Sorry I missed it, I haven't read much on hear lately. My blogs are set on an automatic schedule. I've got a lot of cathing up to do. Hope you had fun!!

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  12. Thanks for the birthday wishes, Kristina. It was a pretty quiet birthday, but my friends helped me celebrate the next day.

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