January brings my birthday (Jan 8th) and our wedding anniversary (Jan 12th). It was hard for me to admit I'm 45 this year. How can that be? I don't feel that old! This was the first year I wasn't that excited about celebrating. I think I'd like to stop having birthdays now. It won't stop me from getting older, but it will stop reminding me how old I am. Despite my lack of enthusiasm, we celebrated anyway. Shayleen had us over for dinner and fixed all my favorites; enchiladas, rice, beans, homemade salsa, guacamole and chips. With brownies and ice cream for dessert! My jeans fit a little snugger now! And I bought myself a birthday present: new everyday dishes. It was time to replace the 80's looking dishes we got as wedding gifts 23 years ago.
Then this last weekend Tim and I celebrated our anniversary by spending the night in Old town Pasadena and going to a very nice dinner. We did a little shopping and enjoyed just being together, without interruptions or distractions. On Sunday we drove up to the the back side of the San Gabriel mountains to a little known ski area called Mt. Waterman. There were several feet of snow there, and the solitary lift was running, but nobody was on it. There were a few cars pulled over in turnouts along the road so the passengers could play in the snow. From there we went down to Palmdale on the desert side of the mountain range, and then looped back around to the backside of Wrightwood, where there were TONS of people playing in the snow. We literally saw thousands of cars either parked on the side of the road, or slowly inching there way trying to get to the snow. For miles it was an endless stretch of cars. But when we pulled off into the small town of Wrightwood, there were a normal amount of people checking out the restaurants and coffee places. As we drove we dreamed and planned for things we would like to do in the future. (I know what you young ones are thinking, how much of a future is there for two 45 year olds who've been married 23 years? Plenty!) As we drove back down from the mountains we stopped at Vince's to top off the weekend of indulgence with spaghetti. I may never need to eat again!
And so, of my 45 years, I've been married 23 years. Not as clean of a ratio as last year when it was 44 and 22, but I'm looking forward all the same to more and more of my years spent with a man who loves me and I love in return.
We had a great visit with Annika and her mom Sarah who visited from Minnesota. Annika was just a little over one year old when they left our little back house and moved to Minnesota to be near family. She is now 2 1/2 years old and quite the character. Mutual friends came to visit and play, and we got to go to their favorite restaurants (In n Out and a local Mexican restaurant). Their visit went by way to fast, but we loved being with them. And next time we see them they will have a new little brother or sister for Annika (this summer!).
