Erika's Birthday

As we approached December, I knew it was going to be busy.  I texted Erika to find out what she wanted to do for her birthday since it was coming up pretty quickly.  She said she didn't know, and I pushed her to let me know as soon as possible.  She took longer than I wanted to, so I pestered her until she told me.  She wanted breakfast again but not as involved as last year...when we had waffles.

This year, she wanted pancakes, scrambled eggs, hashbrowns and sausage.  I told her that was easy, and I could pick up everything at the store before that weekend.  I asked her if the Sunday before her birthday was fine, and she said yes.  Her birthday was on a Tuesday this year but it's really hard to meet up with everyone during the week when people work until 5 or 6 in the evening.

I wrote everyone an email to let them know about Erika's birthday and what we were going to have.  Emails, so far, has seemed to be the easiest way to get a hold of everyone to give them the information they needed. 

That weekend, I met up with Mom after her hair appointment in West Olympia.  We went to TJ Maxx, the mall and Costco.  We got the majority of our shopping done but still had a couple of things we still needed to get.  I went over to the cemetery to deliver Grammie her Christmas wreath while Mom continued her shopping at Walmart.  I visited with Grammie for about 15-20 minutes and told her about what was going on in our lives at that point and how we got some Christmas stuff together, including a small Christmas tree, and decorated it for Grandpa in his room.  He absolutely loved it.  Afterwards, I went to my friend, Alicia's Christmas party, where we had a great time eating food, hanging out and decorating Christmas cookies.  On the way home that night, I stopped at Walmart to get a few groceries for Erika's breakfast birthday party and then went home.

The morning of, I got up, vacuumed the floor while Ben put dishes away and then started some laundry. We moved some stuff around, brought in chairs, arranged the tables and then started making pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage and potatoes for her birthday.  Everyone arrived around noon. We watched the Seahawks play the Texans throughout the morning.  

Once everyone was here, we dished up and ate our delicious food.  Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.  I wasn't sure how much food to make and hoped that I made enough for eight people.  Which, thankfully, I did.  Everyone got enough food.  We cleared our plates and got ready for Erika to open her gifts.

Back when Doug and Jenn were dating, they went to the Puyallup Fair in September and bought some stuff for people as gifts.  Dad got a poo hat and a couple signs and while we were helping Doug move his stuff out of the house, Jenn handed me this unicorn poo hat and told me that she and Doug got it for Erika for her birthday.  I told her I would give it to Erika when we had a party for her.  I got Erika a Stay Puft Marshmallow T-shirt from the mall a few weeks back.  Mom and Dad got her a table and a unicorn bag we picked up from last summer's shop hop.

After Erika was done opening her presents, she and Zach went home because they had to take their dogs out to go potty and she had to work on her thesis some more.  She cannot wait to be done with it so she can move one from it.  Everyone else stayed behind to watch the end of the Seahawks game, which we beat the Texans 33-13 and then they went home.

Ben and I started cleaning up, we did the dishes, moved stuff back to its original place and then went to Lowe's to get a few things.  We came back, finished putting the house back together, I had the rest of my tuna from Thursday as a leftover.  We watched Sunday Night Football, I did some blogging, got cleaned up and got ready for the upcoming work week.

Happy Birthday Erika!!

Next Adventure:  Grandma Karen's Christmas with the Aunt and Cousins and Ed's Birthday Party at the Ram