Chris Has a Birthday

March 31, 2019: Chris celebrates with his chocolate birthday cake.

Chris is not really 52 (he's 41). Those were the only candles Dylan could find,

so he put them on the cake as a joke. Chris wanted to reverse them to read "25"!

My son-in-law Chris turned 41 on March 28th. That same evening, he celebrated his birthday with his mom, Brenda, and his sister Lori and her family. Our family's celebration for Chris had to wait a few days, until our weekly Sunday family dinner last night. Better late than never! 

Since Dylan transferred to another department in Walmart a while back, he usually works until 7:00 or even 8:00 on Sundays, so our family dinners often get a late start. Yesterday, though, he had the day off, so we were able to get the party started at 5:00. That made it nice, giving me extra help for all the slicing, chopping, and shredding involved in preparing dinner. Besides, eating dinner earlier is important when you know there will be cake and ice cream later!

The taco meat and tortillas are ready for soft tacos!

Whenever possible, I like to have the birthday honoree choose the dinner menu, as well as the cake and ice cream they'd like. Chris requested One-Pan Tacos (except he specified that we use tortillas instead of tortilla chips this time). For dessert he wanted a chocolate cake with root beer floats.

Technically, we didn't really have One-Pan Tacos last night. That meal entails cooking up the ground beef, onions, chilies, and spices, and then smothering it with the cheese and other toppings right there in the pan. You just scoop it onto your plate, all hot and melty, so you can then scoop it into your mouth with tortilla chips. Since we were using tortillas, though, it made more sense to just cook up the meat and then let everyone add their own toppings on their soft tacos.

Taco toppings on the sideboard.

After dinner, I told the kids that it's time for us to have "The Talk." They all burst out laughing and said, "I think it's a little too late for that, Mom!" No, silly children. I mean "The Disneyland Talk." Last week I caught the Disneyland bug and spent two full days planning as many details of our November vacation as I could, given that the trip is still seven months away and the new Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge land won't even open for two more months. I was so focused on my itinerary-building task that I accomplished nothing else at all for those two days, including forgetting to stop and eat. The only reason we had evening meals was because Mark would eventually wander into my office to ask, "Are we having dinner?"

Thus, we all adjourned to the living room for a Disneyland meeting, where we discussed important issues like who's going to drive (probably Jacob and me, with others contributing for gas); how much money everyone needs to put away in the next seven months for not only tickets and gas, but also for four days of eating out at Disneyland, plus lunch at Ruby's Surf City Cafe on Huntington Beach Pier; and whether it's worth an extra $15 per day for MaxPass tickets (the general consensus was: Absolutely!).

Chris with his birthday presents.

Once that was all hashed out, it was finally time for Chris to open his gifts. Sarah had already given him a shirt and slacks (he's wearing the new shirt in the photo above) at the party with his mom and sister, but last night she also surprised him with an Xbox card. Dylan and Jake gave him a Star Wars Lego set featuring a dramatic scene from the end of the film Revenge of the Sith. From Mark he received a pocket watch in the shape of Han Solo's ship, the Millennium Falcon (which Jake and I both covet). And I gave him a Bluetooth speaker that looks like Darth Vader. As you can see, Chris has gotten into Star Wars more than ever. He's even working on decorating his home office with Star Wars memorabilia.

Chris's birthday cake alongside a paleo chocolate-banana bread for Sarah and me.

Finally, it was time for ice cream and cake. We all sang our usual splendid version of "Happy Birthday to You" before Chris blew out his candles, which incorrectly identified him as now being 52. I told Dylan I didn't think I had any candles, but he rifled through the container where I usually keep them anyway. All he could come up with was an old "5" and an old "2" candle, so he thought it would be funny to make it look like Chris had turned 52. There was a brief tussle when Chris tried to switch the candles to "25," but you can see who prevailed.

Sarah and I resisted the temptation to sample the yummy-looking birthday cake, but we were more than satisfied with the Double-Chocolate Paleo Banana Bread I'd baked that afternoon. It's one of our favorite treats. I don't bake it very often, because it's not really low-carb since it uses mashed bananas as the sweetener, but it's definitely delicious enough to stand in for wedding cakes and other celebratory cakes at events where Sarah and I are trying to avoid the higher-carb fare.

As for the root beer floats, Sarah and Chris had brought both regular and diet root beer with them, while I had purchased both regular and no-added-sugar vanilla ice cream. I rarely drink soda, and I drink even less now that I've gone seriously low-carb, but Sarah and I did enjoy a cup of the low-carb version last night. It hit the spot.

Happy 41st birthday, Chris!

As the frivolity slowed and the guys got ready to leave, I pushed as much of the sugary leftovers on them as possible (I did let Mark keep two slices of leftover cake). Then they were on their way by 9:00, and Sarah and I settled in to watch the season nine finale of The Walking Dead. It was a wonderful evening, celebrating a great guy. Happy birthday, Chris!