In Black and White

What a great birthday week! I do love it when circumstances dictate that birthdays become birth weeks. Such was the case this year. My week started with two of my favorite people, my sisters, and a quick birthday weekend getaway. The times we spend together always bring laughter, sisterly sarcasm, shopping, and food. This trip was no exception.

Saturday afternoon following a short shopping excursion and a football game on tv (you'll remember that we three are football fanatics), one sister, who shall for her protection remain nameless, asked if I would like to take a nap with her. Now, I had to tell her that I have had lots of birthday offers over the years, some good and some bad, but none quite so....well so..... weird as hers. I declined. Off she went to catch her power nap alone.

Not to overlook my other sister's contribution to the week-end, this one was smartly dispatched to the ABC store while other sister and I grocery shopped. The ABC mission......margarita fixings. This sis triumphantly returned. Great mixer....check, limes.....check, tequila...how do you forget the tequila? Yes, you read correctly....one sister is offering me a birthday afternoon nap while the other is offering up margaritas of a virgin variety. What party animals we are!

All was well, however, when time for presents arrived and my sisters had, as they so often do, done the impossible and tracked down a Tory bag I've wanted for two years but only just mentioned in the last few days. I do love my sisters!

I am reading Very Valentine by Adriana Trigiani. (Note to readers: As you may have already surmised, my birthday week-end left me plenty of time for reading.) The opening sentences of the book are...."I'm not the pretty sister. I'm not the smart sister either. I'm the funny one." As the years of my life and those of my sisters have passed, I think the three of us have at one time or another each been the pretty one or the smart one or the funny one. I also think all three of us have been the ugly duckling, or the foolish one or the anything but funny one. But the thing is, no matter who each of us is individually, together we are and always have been sisters, bound as such by our dna but so much more importantly by our love and loyalty. So, though on this week-end I might have called them the sleepy one and the virgin one (oops, may need to rename that one), they are my precious sisters and among my richest blessings.

My actual birthday arrived and began with a rousing happy birthday performance from The Trio Pettit, definitely not to be confused with The Band Perry. With flowers and song and a 5:50 am curtain call, my day was off and running to the point that the previous week-end's offer of a nap with my sister was sounding better and better. Work commitments and a football game for my son's team meant no birthday dinner this year. Adrian graciously offered to take me for a sumptious Ruth's Chris evening. He thought we could probably go week-end after next. Really????

I was dazzled and humbled by an unending list of facebook well-wishers. I received many wonderful cards. I loved a great lunch/party with my work friends who truly are some of my best friends. However, the moment of my birthday....this birthday's moment in time , as it were, came when I realized Kate had once again hijacked my facebook account, something we have discussed on numerous occasions, but this time to post the following:

My Mother is a special gift,
A special gift that God gave to me.
I'd be lost and lonely without her,
If God took her away you see.
I love her so very much,
... That I couldn't bear to live without her healing touch.
Thank-you God for giving me such a loving Mother,
For I wouldn't want to be a part of any other.

Happy birthday mommy bug I love you so much!!!!!!!!

And there it was in black and white. Suddenly the margaritas minus tequila or the fact that my sexiest offer of the week came from my sister or the birthday dinner two weeks late didn't matter. This was a great birthday!