a great birthday

the theme for my birthday weekend seemed to be delicious food! aaron and i did go to the tapas restaurant on friday night, and sampled a few small but very tasty dishes. the waitress was really thrown off by the fact that aaron got sangria and i had a beer. not very gender typical, i guess, but i enjoyed my manly drink.

saturday i did get my hair cut, and i went crazy and had the hairdresser style it straight! i've never done that before, but it was fun. it took her about half an hour, three products and two different devices. i'm guessing it probably won't happen again until i get my hair cut next. here's me with my kiddos and my straight straight hair.

then saturday night some of my lady friends came out for a yummy supper at d'annas, my very favorite italian restaurant. it was very festive and extravagent--i even strayed from my usual spaghetti and meatballs and ordered a steak! lily said since my hair was straight, i wasn't obligated to do anything i'd usually do.

here's dorothy, irene and sarah

and here's lily, maryka and me... in the SNOW! yes folks, i did get my birthday snow. it began midway through dinner and was a delight to walk out into in the evening. sarah, irene and i continued the magic with a viewing of the northwest ballet's "nutcracker" at wwu. it was a really fun performance without the promised russian but with lots of cute little kids. both sarah and irene felt like the moves they were watching should be reasonable to replicate, but upon trying a few out during intermission, realized that was not true. good thing they're nurses, not ballerinas!

then sunday morning isla shined as little baby jesus (or LBJ, as aaron kept saying) at our church's christmas pageant. she didn't cry a peep, though she was napless and a little restless. the young mary tried holding isla for a while, and many of the older church ladies were on the edge of their seats as isla flopped about. but all went well, and we got many congratulations for having the best baby jesus ever. who would have known?

here's isla in her baby jesus outfit, a lovely little white cardigan and pants from our friend andrea. no swaddling clothes, as i knew she'd bust right out of them.

mary and child

the pageant finale, with isla in the rickety manger on stage. (sorry it's so hard to see! i didn't want to be one of those annoying stage mothers who marches right up front to take pictures.)

we finished off the weekend at aaron's parents' house, where we had a greek feast and wherein i was presented with the aforementioned awesome new digital camera. aaron, uncle kevan and noah also spent a bit of time playing in the snow, trying to sled on a torn apart bandstra moving box. (not a big success.) isla watched them out the window.

thank you to everyone for your happy birthday wishes! it was a wonderful weekend.