A tale of two birthdays

I wanted a photo of the two of us, but the last picture like that is from Jon's visit to Alaska in September of 2017. So, I found this and figured it was just as good!!!! 

My birthday was Friday, Feb 1. Steve bought me my favorite flowers and they are looking absolutely GREAT in the kitchen window. Both he and Jon also got me Amazon gift cards, too. The cute noisy card is also from Steve, it has a high enough pitch in the singing meows that Maxwell can hear it! 

We went out for Jon's birthday on Saturday and then on his real birthday we got snow!!!! Moses and Maxwell were absolutely not impressed. I love their footprints, though! 

I had no real plan for Jon's birthday cake. I did know I wanted to make cupcakes and take them to  his work. Other than that, I wasn't sure. So, the snow inspired me to use these molds mum bought me ages past. They didn't work very well with the poppy seed chocolate chip mix I made up. 

 The regular cupcakes DID turn out ok. They, too, have the butter mix with added in bits.

I had envisioned a chocolate cake with white frosting and a chocolate sort of ganache over the top and the snowflake cupcakes on top of that. I even decided I'd pipe the lines on the snowflake cupcakes. It wasn't working. After a lot of powdered sugar and some tub frosting, I realised I had a bit of a mess on my hands and needed a new plan. 

 I finally decided to just marble the thing. It looked ok, tasted good, but it wasn't as spectacular as some of the other cakes I've made.Jon did say it looked like a zebra cake and he had some in his room I could have used.

I, thankfully, used letter candles the guys bought last year for a cookie cake they had bought and taken photos of for my birthday. (I didn't make a cake for me. I made a roast with bread, burned my finger on the gravy, and had a simple dessert! Chocolate pudding with whipped topping) I also didn't have 25, even adding the pink candles I had in the boxes still. So, I just stayed with letters. I must admit, I was a bit confused when I looked at this H. I thought it was backwards. Jon reminded me it is one of those ambidextrous letters! 

 Jon had asked for CS Lewis for his birthday, so that is what he was given. There were 9 books total. it should last him a while. He just finished a selection by Jack London, so Lewis is a good way to shake off those dark, cold stories.. We also had a few visitors, in spite of the almost 4 inches of fluffy powder. Larry and Suzanne, Dorothy, Beverly, Delbert, Kayla, Justin, and Mike L. came to celebrate!!

 The guys also started up the Jukebox, encouraging Larry and Suzanne to spin in their socks for a bar or two! I hadn't planned a 'party', but we had cake and ice cream and presents and music and dancing and so, I reckon it was!

This  month is full of so many good things, the difficult ones are there to add savor to the joy. May you find blessings all around!