Donnie had a birthday!

I think Donnie had a great day yesterday.  He had been begging to open his presents for weeks and eventually got away with opening three!  We had a great morning with pancakes, lots of coffee, & a book by his favorite author, Suzanne Langer!  Donnie headed over to school for some grading and I planned his surprise lunch.  I got a tropical salad from the Honeycomb and met him at school.  We rearranged the advanced painting room with Sayuri until everyone was very happy, talked to lots of people, and even cleaned out and organized Donnie's studio.  For dinner I made enchiladas and chocolate mousse (apparently the best part of the day, as I later heard!)  We watched part of The Passenger, the second gift and then Akeelah and the Bee.  Finally Donnie got to open a last birthday gift, a snuggly sweater.  We had a great day, and I'm hearing that he wishes everyday was that fun...

PS  In these pics, Donnie is going for the early 1900's afraid of the camera look.

Our Mysterious Snowflaker(s)

We had a bunch of fun at Eric and Stephanie's Friday night. We played Yahtzee, ate barbeque chicken, green beans, a Christmas tree cake, and Aaron's fabulous turtle brownies, and hung out till the wee hours.  Or so we thought!  Aaron was even falling asleep on the couch as we headed out the door toward home.  (It was only like 11, but it had been a long day!)

We got home and apparently had our lights on.  Sarah and Erin had been told (by Donnie) that they could come over anytime on Friday as long as our lights were on.  We were so excited to see them!  After they headed inside, we (of course) set to drink making.  Donnie made coffee and I, hot chocolate.  These girls love to come over for warm goodies! 

Sarah brought us each a present, wrapped in baby blue tissue paper, decorated with a snowflake. Donnie got a book about coffee that asked existential questions about the bean (perfect!) and I received a book of hot chocolate recipes (perfect!)  But even better is that the photo on the front of my book had hot cocoa being served in my green mugs!  (Amazingly perfect!)  It was like a snapshot of our times together during the semester.  How sweet!

We chatted and chatted and had a great time with the girls.  We finally headed off to bed and slept soundly.  The next day, as I headed over to Asian Fu for more coffee, I found the snowflakes on our door.  Beautiful, perfect, designed snowflakes.  Now, I can't say for sure who snowflaked us...but I think I have a pretty good idea!