The End of Birthday Season

This year, my birthday fell on a Sunday which is not always the most fun day to celebrate.  However, my peeps came through for me, and it turned out to be a wonderful day.  And all this with our power going out in the morning (thanks so much, "bomb cyclone") which meant I had to go to church unshowered.

I wasn't about to not let anyone know about my birthday at church, but my friends surprised me by actually remembering themselves, and handed over gift bags before I'd even popped up on the organ. Good ol' Hilary and Amber.  And that morning, John had skipped church to help another member of the Elder Quorum presidency whose basement was literally flooding at that moment, so instead of leaving me sitting alone, Amber and Sage sat with me in the pew.  How fun it was to make comments and make conversation during sacrament meeting ;-)

And after sacrament, it was off to Young Women's where I played the piano for myself while the girls sang to me, and because we had tater tots ready for Rachel Hicken (whose birthday was last week, and because tater tots are our Mia Maid tradition), I claimed them for myself as well.  And thankfully, I remembered to get a selfie of me with those cutie patootie girls.

This isn't ALL of the girls, but I look bloated and fat in the following picture which included Savannah, so for history's sake, I'm keeping this one ;-) And I won't lie--it breaks my heart to think about leaving these girls, and our Mia Maid adviser, Hilary, and this calling in just a few short months.  These girls are a light in my life.

John got home just a few minutes after I did and despite having spent the last few hours mopping and squeegee-ing and building mud walls for the flooding basement, he fired up the grill and made me hamburgers.  He then drove over to Tractor Supply and bought a new battery for our generator, seeing that our power wasn't coming on anytime soon.

For the preceding week, Hannah had left me a gift-a-day to open.  She really is so thoughtful, bringing all of those gifts in her carry-on bag when she visited.  And who will complain about Advent-style birthday?  It was so fun, each day, opening a new one.

This what I found on our dining table when I got home from the airport <3

It wouldn't be a card from Hannie without some comment about the envelope glue!

And it wouldn't be a card from Hannie with out a cat!  This is now my bookmark for book club ;-)

Hannah and John keep every single card they're given.  I figured I could just take a picture so that when I lose my bookmark, I'll still have a record of the sweet sentiments <3

Day One.  I actually asked for this for Christmas as much as I don't REALLY want these. However, if I'm giving credit to Michigan on Greenie's bumper, I should definitely give some credit to BYU for the three Kennedy children who have attended the school.

Day Two:  I couldn't believe it.  Hannie had bought me "earth" heels.  Turns out, I bought them for myself back in December while visiting the girls in Utah and didn't remember....

Days 3-5:  a hairbrush (mine is, like, 20 years old), Jesus the Christ (since my old copy is currently packed away in a box somewhere), and *drum roll* a holder for my phone in the car.  No joke, I have wanted one of these ever since I used Hannah's.  And yesterday, driving all over Detroit with it, I wondered where it had been my entire life!

Day Six:  This is such a sentimental gift, and I just love it.  Back when we did our Harry Potter tour of Ireland with the Kennedy Klan, we drove everywhere in a giant VW van/bus.  Allison appropriately nicknamed it "The Knight Bus" and since then, any image of it brings back the sweetest memories.

Day Seven.  I know you're wondering what I got, right, especially since it was the biggest gift?  Well, I must interject before telling you.

With the new missionary guidelines, missionaries are allowed to call family on birthdays and "special occasions".  For my kids, it's a bit of overkill, knowing that they don't need so much family contact, but Glo was going to take full advantage of it!  So I was expecting a call, and it came soon after John and I finished lunch.  In true Kennedy fashion, Glo had assembled her entire district to sing "Happy Birthday" to me.

Then, I thought Glo would hang up, but NO!  Somebody in the group asked me if I had birthday cake, so I went out on the Catio and showed them both the chocolate cheesecake AND the Bill Knapp's birthday cake that I had (this, during the 60mph cyclone winds which almost blew away the cheesecake).  Then, I asked them if they wanted to see what I got for my birthday, and I proceeded to show them what Hannie had given me through the week, and I asked them if they wanted to open gifts with me.  (I think they said "yes" although I might have just ignored any response because I was enjoying spending the time with them.)

So I opened my gifts from Hilary and Amber.

As much as I don't like Meyer's soap, I so appreciate the thoughtfulness of Hilary.  Again, I can't even imagine my life without these people.

And Amber.  She knows me more personally than this, but she's not always the most thoughtful/sentimental person, so this gift is actually a lot from her.  And knowing that I had ordered a black coat for myself from Eddie Bauer just days before, the scarf will be PERFECT!

 And it was so fun, hearing the reactions of the cutie missionaries.  But I knew Hannah's gift was still waiting in the wings, so I opened it with them.  And I could hardly believe what I opened...

 I don't even like "Mormon" art, but this new artist is a revelation.  Jorge Cocco is an Argentine artist who entered the church's art competition a few years ago and since then, he's become famous, creating many more paintings focusing mostly on Biblical stories.  As my kids know, "the woman at the well" is probably my favorite scripture story, and having it depicted by Jorge Cocco in a 16x20 gliceé print was perfect.  And how fun was it for the missionaries to see that what I love is spiritual in nature ;-)

I honestly didn't want to hang up, but they had to go to lunch.  We had so much fun, laughing and talking.  And in the end, Glo sent me this message over Google Hangout:

Mama, they all loved the phone call.  "Very entertaining".  They all said they felt like they were in the real world for a few minutes.  Elder Perez said he felt like it was HIS birthday.  Thanks for always being down with the young generation.  And thanks for letting me show you off.  My district thinks you are SO COOL. 

Love you, Mama!  I'm so glad Hannah got you so many great gifts and that you have so many friends who gave you gifts today at church!  You deserve it, Mama!  Have some chocolate cake for me.  Love you so much!  And HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

And afterwards, I opened Ethan and Rebecca's gift, Born Standing Up, which is funny because I have already listened to half of that book and really liked it!  Now I can finish it!

And Sarah.  I can always count on my birthday "twin" to come through for me on my birthday.  I'll never forget one of the first birthday boxes which was just a bunch of Hostess Cupcakes ;-). But this year, it was thoughtful and amazing and touching and just what I need:

"What's comin' will come, and we'll meet it when it does."--Hagrid

And try as I might for the rest of the day to watch my favorite movies and do genealogy and get a nap (my birthday wishes), I didn't get much of any of that done because of phone calls and messages and emails from friends.  Not having extended family who cares about me or even exists, my friends (and my husband and my own children) came through in the very best of ways.

"Tater" was happy to get the last remaining tater tots in celebration ;-)