Beating the winter blues

Okay, so it's not that I'm really all that "blue", it just feels a bit like Antarctica these days in Michigan! But there certainly were some bright spots this weekend - my mom likes the color blue, and we celebrated her birthday tonight (with a little carryout from PF Chang's and a fruity cake from the Chinese bakery - what, what!). She's one of those people you think of when one mentions a "silent strength" - she's even-keeled, and has put up with my picky dad, picky kids (yes, all three of us in different ways), and uber-picky (love you guys! :) grandkids for all these years - and she does it with class, often on little sleep, and with a homemade meal on the table, of course. Then when we got home we booked our plane tickets for our September trip to Europe, we're so excited! Conveniently we'll be there on my birthday, which just being there should be gift enough, but perhaps there will be a lovely boutique in France or Italy that will be calling my name....

And last night (bear with me as I'm apparently working backwards through the weekend) we celebrated our good friend Karin's birthday with some fun with her family over dinner and a little friendly American-Idol-on-the-Wii gameplay. For the record, the birthday girl brought home the biggest scores of the night, so now I'm looking forward to her solo karaoke debut in public ;). Perhaps that will be on the agenda when we see her next month in sunny Florida, which I personally still like to think is her temporary residence even though she moved there a year and a half ago!

Also, throughout the weekend the hubby & I did some fun things to celebrate a few of our relationship milestones, like having dinner at Camp Ticonderoga which was the official start of our flirtation two years ago that eventually led to our well, marriage (!). Our friend Kate coined the term "flirtiversary" to describe a point in time that a couple can point to when their mutual interest was sparked, though some folks might dispute the other's recollection of said moment, ours was pretty clear. And we took a quick & cold walk through Shain Park in Birmingham where the Barton got down on one knee and proposed, wow that seems so long ago, but it has only been one year! Crazy.

Thus it 'twould seem that there was much to celebrate, and still much to look forward to, not the least of which is a shorter work week since we were both off for MLK Day today. So I'll put my winter whining away (for now) and dress with an extra layer and just be grateful for what I have, despite the ice on our windowsills and the seemingly endless bitter cold. Cheers!