Sweetness Overload

I had a great day today. I went to work, hoping for a short day. I worked with a very capable resident and my three cases went very smoothly and quickly. I was allowed to go home at about 11AM, but I stayed a bit longer to chat with others. No one made a big announcement on the overhead intercom like they did last year, which was nice. Everyone was SO sweet to me--I got quite a few nice birthday wishes. One of our PAs even wanted to admire my cool red purse (I love that purse!) and asked to touch it. :) I was going to miss the department holiday party, which I was sad about, but not enough to pass up having lunch with Patrick and Eric.

I met Patrick and Eric at The Cheesecake Factory. Wow, it was super crowded and I had to wait a while just to valet park. Even the valet parking got full but luckily, I got the last spot. They were already seated and I had my favorite dish there, the Chinese Chicken Salad and then had the Kahlua Cocoa Coffee Cheesecake for dessert. I had lots of leftovers that I'm planning to have tomorrow. Yum!

Because we had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory, we missed the Chinese parade that Natalie's class was putting on at 1:30pm. The whole third grade class had been studying China and the parade was a sort of culmination of the study unit. We got there shortly after that and I was greeted with this beautiful reaction from Natalie. The fact that she was so surprised and excited to see me really lifted my spirits even more.

Because of the China studies, the theme for their party was a Chinese New Year. The room mom organized a meal that included some fried rice and egg rolls. They also had McDonald's Chicken Nuggets and cookies. Even though Eric had eaten a little mac and cheese at The Cheesecake Factory, he ate three chicken nuggets and half a cookie.

Natalie also got a goodie bag with a "chinese" bracelet and two jelly candies. They even passed out red envelopes to the kids with another "chinese" bracelet inside. Natalie shared everything with Eric, including her seat. She was so sweet to him and he ate it all up.

Almost all the kids were being signed out early from school so they could go home with their parents who had attended the holiday party. At first Natalie hesitated, because her school bus driver had told them that he was going to be passing out candy canes on the bus ride home. Patrick had already given Mr. H one of the Ghirardelli chocolate bags that we gave all the kids' teachers in anticipation of not seeing him in the afternoon. Natalie ended up going home with us since we already had candy canes at home from the Breakfast With Santa event last weekend. As we were leaving the school building, we saw Mr. H standing near the front doors. He knew that several kids would be picked up early from school and wouldn't be riding the bus, so he waited at the school to hand out candy canes early. How SWEET is that? He even gave a candy cane to Eric and said that Natalie was his "doll" because she always greeted him with a smile. It's nice to hear about the good things that your children have done.

We went home and then later, Patrick picked up Alex from the nearby middle school. He always loves to take the bus instead of being picked up at his school. I picked Anthony up from school. Before I picked up Anthony, I went to Starbucks to pick up my free birthday drink, a Mocha Frappucino. I didn't have the coupon I had received in the mail. When the lady manning the counter heard that today was my birthday, she said that she would buy me one. How sweet is that? I've seen her there a few times before. Each time she asks for my name to put it on the cup, I reply "Melanie" and she says, "That's my daughter's name!" This time I told her that is what she always says. I certainly don't expect her to remember me, but she was still sweet to me.

We went to P.F. Chang's for dinner. We ordered entirely too much food, but it'll be great to eat that for dinner tomorrow. Eric had brought a piece of a candy cane from home. I let him eat it before the food arrived, to keep him busy, and he ate the rest of it after dinner. I told him I wanted to take a picture of him eating the candy cane and he made the biggest show of it! He kept opening his mouth really wide and closing his eyes as if to savor the candy. He was cracking me up with his antics.

After dinner we were too full to go out for ice cream, my original plan, so we're going to postpone that to later this weekend. So much sweetness already today! We went home and I got to open my presents from Patrick and the kids. I already opened my presents from my sisters and in-laws earlier when the boys weren't home yet. I figured they wouldn't care about seeing those gifts and I was too excited to wait. Patrick was so sweet and got me a couple of items from my very specific list. I was very happy!

I also had lots of wonderful friends and family post birthday wishes to my wall on Facebook. How sweet is that? My day was filled with lots of sweetness and other good things. That's all I could ever ask for. :)