Birthdays!

The start of February is always busy with birthdays in the Hansell house. Jon and I began the month with ice cream for breakfast. Because it is a holiday!  Mine was on a slice of Moose is Loose cinnamon bread and Jon put a cutie on vanilla ice cream, then drenched it all in chocolate sauce. He said it wasn't bad, but felt it might have been better with the oranges sliced up. Then, he went off to work and Steve helped me do chores at the house. 

I had to wait til Moses woke up in order to remake the bed! I had a busy, nice day and figured Moses could have a spot of comfort, too!

Daffs were visible everywhere in the yard! These are in back and looking splendid. The ones along the walk are pretty, too!

Moses was entirely interested in the halibut dinner I'd made. He was intent on getting Jon's attention..or his fish!

Sunday, we enjoyed our annual luncheon out between birthdays. Jon's ordered a sandwich made of two patties with ham and roast beef and bacon and cheese! He got the wrong fries, these were mine. We transferred them over to my plate and he got his own separate.

I had a chicken sandwich. With bacon! I only ate half of mine, I had the chicken part later. Jon left part of his fries, he had those warmed in the air fryer on his birthday!

I did pick up a pair of earrings at the restaurant. I like how they sparkle.

On Jon's birthday, I made chocolate moose muffins for him to take to work, he left them in his Bronco! 

 We had planned on pizza for dinner and Jon opted to go with me to get it. It had also started to snow, just like last year! I may not be privileged enough to get snow on my birthday, but Jon is! Jon decided on a festive only for him sort of pizza. The garlic chicken I bought slid in the oven, made a calzone and a mess, and then was spread back out after it was rescued. I was not happy-it was a rather convoluted kitchen day!!

 Jon's birthday cake was a recipe from a Martha Stewart cookbook that I will probably never use again. It was dense and delicious, but used more flour and sugar than I use normally. It also dropped like a rock and took hours to cool. He wanted a layer cake, so between the layers I spread home made Alaskan raspberry jelly with mini chocolate chips. It was delectable! Reminded me of one of those fancy chocolates in a box that have a burst of juice when you bite into them.

The curls were so easy to make. I got a chocolate bar from the cupboard and the tater peeler from the drawer and made shaved chocolate curls! They would have been larger if I had a thicker bar of chocolate.

26 candles does make a bit of a fire!!! I didn't want to spread them all over the top and make holes everywhere, so I grouped them together. Made them easy to blow out, too- 

 Jon staged his cake and ice cream. It looks good enough to eat and it was more than good enough!

So, another pair of birthdays is over. What does the next year hold? We'll take it day at a time and see what happens. 

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! 

An Ending and A Beginning

January 31 ended with another stunning sky display. The half and half mixture of sunset was eye catching, indeed! It was really very cold and breezy, I didn't have my camera, and after taking a few photos, jumped back in the car to warm up! 

 Before we left, a man went to the edge of the bluff in this last photo and took pictures. I wasn't that dare devil. The area was really icy!!!!

 Mum was sad looking out of the window at this bluff area. She and Ma Nick used to climb this with fish they'd caught ages past. It was a much fuller bluff back then.

When I looked at my Facebook this morning and discovered I'd quite possibly been hacked, Tim C gave today a new name. Laugh at the World Day. I so like that!!!! 

 The morning of the first, I did a few chores and found in the washing machine a marble. I hadn't realised I'd lost any!!! I also noticed this morning when I cut my bangs, it appears they shrunk in the shower. They seem a lot shorter than I had thought I'd trimmed them. (Piffle!) I called mum's newest ANC doctor and made an appointment for next Monday and Tuesday...but forgot to actually find out what time on Tuesday! I called them back and scheduled.  At lunch, I discovered I had a hole in my chin. I was so ready for ice cream!

I had to go out and do a few other things besides ice cream and stopped at the post. I had mail!!! I had birthday cards!!!! There were 9  of them! I was so excited!! Steve sent me 25$ for Amazon and a heavily decorated green paper with birthday greetings from a youngster in the local church. (He'd mentioned it was my birthday in the service. As he said, I'd have probably done it for him!!) His mom sent me a gift, as well. I am completely rich with love today from notes online, in texts, and via paper. 

 I celebrated my birthday while waiting for mum's nurse to arrive. I always try to read Deathlehhem on the first of Feb. I know they are Christmas horror stories, but they are fun to read any time of the year.

I got to talk to Jonathan and Steve and Tony. Even Aunt Darlene and Uncle Randy sent greetings. After I picked up pizza for dinner, cuz mum wanted pizza, Steve sent me these photos. They are of the only birthday cake I think I've actually had in more than quite a few years. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do and did. 

 The decoration and presentation.
 
             
 The Fall.

 Salvage Operations.

 All in all, this last year was full of too many things I can't even process. I'm going to walk into this next one with my face looking forward and my head tall. I promised myself last night, I can take on anything this year throws at me with grace and style and a laugh. (and an occasional whine or two!) Here's looking at you 53!

Happy Birthday, Jonathan!!!

 Jonathan Scott was born Feb 4 early in the morning. He's not gotten up that early since, except to go deer  hunting. His brother, Tony, gave Jon his middle name. Tony also gave Jon the cat in the photo taken last April (2015).

 We celebrated Jon's birthday this year with a moderate turkey dinner. Complete with grey mashed potatoes. (I had a spice mix from something else that I accidentally spilled into the lovely white taters, the spice mix appeared to be heavy on the pepper side!). There is not a photo of the mashed veggies--

When I made Jon's cake, I discovered I had not purchased enough Kit Kats. It took one break more than 10 full size bars to complete the circle. I also used 6 bags of assorted flavors of M&Ms on top. When we added the 21 twirly candles, it was a rather festive topping! We put in one straight candle for the 22nd birthday.

 Steve's hand was getting a bit warm, so he had to pull back to cool off before finishing the rest of the lighting.

 I also took one of Jon blowing OUT the candles, but alas--I was standing in the way of the smoke and well, it ended up being a VERY dark picture.

We decided if the citizens in Ceaser 3 had a chocolate coliseum to live near, they'd not have complained! (Jon's been playing this and his citizens got very annoyed at living next to their coliseum!)

 Cutting a cake is always  interesting. The edges would have been more secure if I had been able to get it all decorated when the frosting was 'sticky'. Putting more decor on at a later time made things tumble easier. Jon didn't mind.

 Kila tried to get a stray m&m. He was mad we took it away.

 OK, forgot to turn this around! Jon had a choice between cookies and cream and chocolate chip mint ice cream. He chose wisely.

 We let the birthday boy cut the cake (talk about a blurry photos!! Jon also didn't take many of these pictures). On the cake he didn't use a protractor or consult our neighbors (one is his HS geometry teacher and the other is a uber smart science professor type) for assistance.

 We rounded out the evening with a couple shakes of Yahtzee. Which dad won both times. We are pretty sure he added up his columns more than once...

 Jon had poppy seed muffins at work yesterday and then today, on Friday, one of Jon's coworkers made a cake for him! I think he had a pretty good birthday. Wonder what next year will bring??