my 31st birthday

Saturday morning, I woke up to Bill singing Happy Birthday. I hopped out of bed (yup, I hopped. It was my birthday!) and got ready for the day. I met Sami at Panera, where she sang Happy Birthday to me (twice) and if you have ever heard Sami, you'll know that her singing in public will draw attention. She also had a candle that she lit and stuck in my bagel. Then we headed over to the mall.

We walked by the Apple store which had this elf in the window. We decided to take some photos.

I had my watch with me because the battery died. When we stopped by the watch store, Sami pointed out that Santa was right there and there were no kids waiting in line. Well, since it's been a few years since I have actually sat on Santa's lap, and I got my thirties off to such a good start with my list that perhaps going to visit Santa on my birthday wasn't such a bad idea. I had Sami go make sure it was okay and since there wasn't a line, I went and talked with Santa. As you can see in the picture, I did not actually sit on his lap. I didn't want to hurt him! But I did have a nice long chat with him. He told me not to worry, I wasn't the first, nor would I be the last adult to sit on his lap. He didn't ask me what I wanted for Christmas, but he did wish me a Happy Birthday.

When I got home from shopping, Bill made me lunch (a croissant with ham, bacon, cheese, lettuce and tomato). After I posted these pictures on facebook, I opened all of my birthday cards. Last year was the first year that I can remember waiting and opening my cards all at once. As odd as that is, I really enjoyed it. By the time I had finished the mail had come and I had a couple more to open! Then I opened my presents.

Then, later that night, Heather came over for taco dinner. After dinner we went to the "Love Came Down at Christmas" concert. It featured Leeland, Sara Groves, Sixpence Non the Richer, and JARS OF CLAY!!!! oh yeah, and we had front row seats. When the usher showed us our seats he exclaimed, "how did you get such good seats?!" Well, when I bought them online I entered the quantity with any availability and those were the seats I got! It was because it was my birthday, I'm sure of it. Anyway, I love Christmas music and the entire program was wonderful. It started at 7pm and we didn't get out of there until somewhere around 10pm. My favorite song they played was "Little Drummer Boy". The two drummers on the snare drum were amazing.

Then we went back and ate my peppermint (overload) cake. And that was my 31st birthday.