Birthday Parties

Before I get to my birthday party, let me tell you about a couple of others held here in El Valle. Rene, our friend from Portugal, decided to hostess a birthday party for the August babies: Adele (6th), Marilyn and me (the 7th), and Christine (the 12th). Rene is the definition of "the hostess with the mostest". There were 14 of us for a sit-down dinner, served by staff, and prior to that, a cocktail party with a bar tender. Marilyn brought tiaras and boas for all the birthday girls, and we found ourselves posing for lots of photos. Marilyn and JD also came dressed in fancy clothes: he in a tux and spats, and she in a party dress her mom had made for her 40 years ago...imagine! I couldn't get one arm in a dress from 40 years ago!

A week earlier, we had a surprise birthday party for Rene, here at our house. Tommy and I had originally thought we would have a small, intimate dinner for Rene, Tom and another couple. But Rene's cookbook group wanted to honor her as well so we changed course, the menu and decided to make a surprise out of the big group. The cookbook group is five gals who are writing a cookbook, the proceeds of which will go to charity. The group is currently in its "recipe testing" phase so each member brought two dishes (whose recipes they were testing) to the surprise party. What an easy way to have a party! Anyway, Rene was surprised, the dinner was delicious, we all had a lot of fun, and she got lots of presents. Our present to her was a New Zealand leg of lamb, which sounds like a very weird present but, in fact, she and I have been moaning about the non-availability of the New Zealand lamb and I had just found them at Riba Smith (new item).

On to my birthday party in the States: several months ago Cynthia had declared that my 60th birthday needed to be celebrated. She's probably sorry she brought it up because I realized what I wanted most was to have a "Big Chill Weekend" with my US pals and the best place for that was her house in Sierra Madre, California. She graciously agreed to be the hostess. Linda Shipman did the organizing, and almost all my pals were there. There were even a couple of surprises: Linda and Wilson, and Nancy, each of whom had said that they couldn't attend. And I really was surprised! Gosh, but it was a fabulous time, and exactly what I wanted with all of us cooking and shopping together, meeting in the kitchen to get the day started, taking walks, talking, going off to special lunch places, visiting bead stores, and just generally hanging out. For the party, Cynthia had hired a band and all the gals danced with Skip; what a good sport he is! It was a perfect time,and I'll enjoy those memories forever!