scenes from a birthday

My birthday started bright and early – like every day lately. I’ve been under the weather and so has the baby. I wish I looked this cute when I’m sick!

Despite appearances, it was a groggy day for both of us. Until the afternoon when my husband arrived home early to bake me a cake and cook dinner. Not just any dinner – steamed mussels in a white wine cream sauce! Fancy! Thank you to my sweet husband for making it a special night.

Three of my favorite things: wine, cake and baby feet.

no retreat no surrender

We thoroughly enjoyed our two Thanksgivings again this year. Two tasty turkeys were turned out by my mom and mother-in-law as always! Was it just me, or did the holidays kind of sneak up on us this year?

We also had two other turkeys in the form of my mother-in-law’s cat Oliver and my sister-in-law’s cat Nanaa for entertainment. Last year I had blogged about their interaction (or lack thereof) and this year was no better. Nanaa is getting braver, but not more tolerant of Oliver. It’s always fun to watch them hash it out.

After a fabulous dinner and dessert, we enjoyed the fire and of course, some wine.

Even Oliver enjoyed the fire.

Nanaa preferred to keep to herself so as to stay out of Oliver’s way.

Don’t hide Nanaa!

Later on we played Cranium. Girls against guys. The girls were winning for most of the game, but somehow the guys came back to beat us.

Maybe it was my brother-in-law’s awesome blind-drawing skills.

Then the boys played some ping pong in the basement. Like boys do on Thanksgiving.

Meanwhile, Nanaa decided to venture out to the living room hoping that the coast was clear.

Look out behind you Nanaa!

She was not amused.

Eventually, they just ignored each other. They were too tired to strike up a game of clawless-paw batting. (Speaking of which, have you seen this video? Hilarious!)

Too much turkey I think.

Looking forward to the holidays! I better get back to my x-mas shopping. My sister flies in on 12/21!
See the rest of my pictures from Thanksgiving on Flickr.

*Blog post title is a lyric from the song “No Surrender” by Bruce Springsteen

gonna take your mama out all night

For my mom’s birthday, I surprised her by taking her downtown to The Wooden Spoon for a cooking class. As if the woman needs any instruction in the kitchen. But we love to cook together and this was a fun reason to go downtown on a nice spring day. There were 12 people in the class and together we created a meal of crab fritters with curry dipping sauce, goat cheese salad with roasted beets and fig-balsamic vinaigrette, pork medallions with arugula cream sauce, roasted potatoes, and a lemon custard fruit tart with raspberries. And we brought our own bottle of wine to sip on while we cooked.

Yes – those are onion goggles. Both stylish and functional.

Check out the rest of the pictures on Flickr.

The best part of the class? You got to eat what you made! It was all muy delicioso!