FIRE DRILL!!!

Actually, it was more like a smoke alarm!

Tom is not one to make a big fuss about his birthday, and he really prefers that nobody else make a fuss either.  Last year we had cake mid-week at Mom & Pop's to celebrate here, and we drove up to Denver for the weekend and had dinner with his friends up in Conifer.  This year we weren't planning on going anywhere, since we just spent a lot of time in the car driving to and from Portland.

So for his birthday, I tried to make a special meal.  On the eve of his birthday, I whipped up a stuffed lobster tail over pasta dish.  It was super tasty, and maybe even better than the actual birthday meal.  He has talked about on a number occasions a favorite dish that his mom made - ground beef and cabbage.  I tried to be sneaky and get the method of cooking from his mom - not really a recipe: ingredients are browned ground beef and chopped cabbage.  Of course I got caught on the phone with a parishioner for an hour, 30 minutes of which was past the end of my work day - time I really needed to race home and start cooking if I was going to beat him home.  Luckily I had arranged for Pop to stall him and ask him to stop by on his way home.  And he was running late, too. 

Dinner was, needless to say, a surprise to him.  I haven't cooked meat yet for him, and he took it as a sign I might eat it with him, but I opted for a burrito.  I had picked up some rocky road ice cream - his favorite - and stuck a candle in it for dessert.  He opened his gifts from me, and we enjoyed a quiet rest of the evening.

The party really got hopping forty-eight hours later!  We went over to Daniel and Julie's house for dessert and drinks.  It was fun, and we had a lot of fun.  I made a German chocolate cake for Thomas with home-made coconut, pecan frosting.  It was tasty - even I ate some.  I had 35 candles left after the one in the ice cream Wednesday, so in they all went to spell "TOM":

A flaming Tom on his cake:

 His cake put off a lot of light, and before he even had a chance to blow them out, the smoke alarm went off! 

We sat and told stories until late in the night.  It was fun to party on a Friday because most nobody had to get up too early.  And everyone got a party favor after he opened his candy-gram from Portland with more candy than the kids get for Halloween!  We were lucky to sleep in together in the morning and enjoy a lazy day start to a busy and hard-working rest of our weekend!

I LOVE YOU, THOMAS!!