Happy "Untraditional" Birthday to Me!

December 4 is my birthday. For me, it usually includes a rather traditional approach: a few presents, a specially prepared cake (yellow not lemon batter of which we eat half of it we eat so the cake is half as tall as a traditional cake), two cans of frosting (so the frosting is as thick as the cake), and a meal with Lori and whatever kids/grandkids happen to be around. The 2018 version of my birthday was, let's call it, rather untraditional.

First of all, last week was a really rough one. Just three days ago, my Dad passed away at the age of 89. The memorial service is later this week so my birthday falls in the between. Still, though untraditional, it was a nice one.

In the morning, my sister Amy and my Mom drove to a funeral home where we filled out information for Dad's death certificate, delivered the obituary I previously wrote and took care of other such arrangements. On the way back home, we stopped at Arby's because "it's my birthday and I'd really like curly-Q fries."

Inside out of the snow and cold

I spent my afternoon banging out some work on my computer. All the while, I received birthday texts, phone calls and Facebook messages. Lori was behind a series of those texts. First, she emailed me a really thoughtful letter and then texted that she was going to forward me some untraditional gifts. The first one is a photo of my truck in the garage. Now that is no small task! When I left home for my folks place in Kansas two weeks ago, my half of the garage was full of leftover building supplies, boxes, discarded closet and bedroom doors a few household items that had no place in our house and all kinds of other stuff. Lori cleared everything out, hauled it to the shed and then (perhaps more impressive) folded the side mirrors in and pulled the truck into the garage without scraping the sides of the garage door. She is not a fan of driving my Silverado. It's a big truck and the garage opening isn't much wider than it is. I'm grateful for her heroic efforts because there's lots of snow and ice outside and who really likes scraping their windshield every single day of winter for months on end? Not me.

Next, she texted me a photo of yet another honey-do project that she (my honey) instead did for me. She painted and placed trim on a door from which I'd previously removed an old window from and replaced with a chunk of mirror that I cut to almost fit it well. Now it is done and in place and looks great.

Third, Lori painted another old door I'd previously puttied and sanded. It will be a placed on a slider to hang above what is now an opening that goes upstairs. This door, when closed, will divert the fireplace-generated heat down the hall to our room instead of letting it drift upstairs. She also used the chop saw to cut the molding we need to go under the bar the door will slide on. We'll hang it when I get home.

If that's not enough, she previously called the only place online she could find in Wichita that would deliver a full course Italian meal to feed me, Mom and Amy. And it was a feast--fetticine alfredo, chicken, green salad, pasta salad, bread, lemonade, bean soup, a sausage sandwich, fried rice balls and the capper--a three pieces of moist lemon cake with a generous proportion of frosting to the cake itself.

Amidst this most grand celebration of untraditionalism, I also received birthday cards from family members. Mom also told me that she was giving me Grandpa Vern's dog tags, Bronze Stars and other World War II medals as well as (I assume) the American flag that was draped over his casket at his funeral. Wow! So surprising! I've always loved my Grandpa and was heartbroken when I lost his guns in our house fire last year. This goes a long way to filling a charred void. So amazing! So honored!

After trying to digest such a meal and receiving a happy birthday video call from a couple of my grandkids, we went downstairs and continued to go through Mom and Dad's things. It will take quite sometime to sort through decades of belongings.

Was it an untraditional day? Yes. Was I more than a thousand miles away from my own home in Montana? Yes. Was it a wonderful day? Yes! Thank you Lori. And thanks to Mom and Amy and my family and friends all across the nation. I am truly blessed, even it's in an untraditional kind of way.