It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Tomorrow is my 26th birthday. I love having my birthday in December. It fits nicely right between Thanksgiving and Christmas, making this time my favorite month of the year.

To make things even better, my birthday festivities are being stretched out over the week of my birthday. Saturday Christine and I went to dinner with several of our friends to my favorite restaurant, the Claddagh. Because that was the day we were celebrating, Christine gave me my presents when I came home from work. They included two books: The Prestige by Christopher Priest, which I spent today reading, and Evil and the Justice of God by N.T. Wright, which I spent all of yesterday reading. She also got me the DVD Dress to Kill, featuring the stand-up comedic genius of Eddie Izzard. NIU recently had a fair trade fair, and Christine bought me a black and gold foil river rock paper weight with koi and an all-natural sandalwood soap.

At dinner, I was surprised by many generous gifts from friends. Meredith presented me with The Little Mermaid two-disc special edition DVD. It is my favorite Disney movie. I saw it in the theatre when it first came out around my ninth birthday. Holy crap, that was seventeen years ago (yes, Dana, I had to use a calculator to figure that out). Elizabeth got me a Stephen King desk calendar. I love it. I shall bring it to work and scare away business. I received a Starbucks giftcard from Sarah, and dark roast Caribou coffee from Mandy and Ryan, who also gave me Sufjan Stevens's CD Michigan. Andrew, who knows how much I love working at a bank, gave me a book of dollar bill origami. It almost makes my working at a bank meaningful. Christine's friend Josh, whom I met for the first time on Saturday, made me a carrot cake with caramel cream cheese frosting.

After dinner, we went to a bar where new friends Kim and Karl bought me Jager shots, resulting in my first ever hangover. Overall, it's been a good birthday.

My gift to myself was the day off from work today. I get my birthday off as a paid holiday at work (pretty cool, eh?) and I took today to give myself a long weekend. As I said, I read The Prestige and listened to Christmas music all day. I also got a haircut and washed the van, not as much fun, but necessary.

Tomorrow, we're going to dinner with Christine's mom and brother. I don't remember the name of the restaurant, but they have great steaks. I'm going to get a rare filet mignon. My mouth is watering already.

Next weekend we travel to Michigan to celebrate my birthday with my family and also to celebrate St. Nicholas Day, another reason I love this time of year. Every Thanksgiving we draw someone's name for Thanksgiving, and every year I know by December 5th whom everyone has. Not by choice, mind you. I love to be surprised, but somehow, I always end up finding out. One year I almost made it, but then, on December 4th, my mom said, "I just figured out that you and I have each other this year." Thanks, mom. I hadn't. I figured now that we're hundreds of miles away, I was no longer in danger of having the surprise spoiled. Not so. My sister, attempting to make a purchase on my father's E-Bay account, was prompted with my log-in information, resulting in an e-mail notice alerting me that I had won an item I had never bid on. Fortunately she didn't have me, so the suspense remains. For now.

Happy Birthday to me!




I'm so old...