Happy Birthday, Dad!

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Gretch and I traveled to Washington this to celebrate my dad's 63rd birthday. His birthday is actually on Tuesday, but my brother Abram and his fiancee, Jen, were coming down this weekend to see my brother Aaron's daughter in a play on Friday, and they are going to Minnesota for Christmas, so it was decided that we would celebrate Dad's birthday a little bit early. (Which really isn't that early, seeing as we typically celebrate birthdays on the Sunday before the actual day. Unless it was for my birthday--those Sundays quite often coincided with the Super Bowl and, let's be honest: nobody wants to celebrate a birthday in competition with the Super Bowl. Not even people like my family members who, with few exceptions, have little to no interest in professional American football.)

We spent Friday afternoon at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Peoria with Jen and Ariana and looked at books for an hour. (Have I mentioned yet that I am a voracious and unabashed bibliophile? If you haven't noticed this, check out my substituting blog and see what I've been doing all this past week.

After dinner with the family, we had cake and ice cream and watched Dad open his birthday presents, including a box full of newspaper and nothing else. Dad likes opening things, and we always enjoy taking advantage of opportunities to get back at Dad for the loving torment he put us through as children (such as hiding Easter baskets inside furniture and hanging from bags outside second-story windows). My brother Aaron and his family came by for the festivities, and we exchanged some Christmas gifts with Abram and Jen.

Today we went to church with Mum (Dad and Ariana were not feeling well). I had a chance to catch up with some friends from my younger days, and found out that there are still people in the Morton Ward who don't know that I have curly hair--even though I've had my hair like this since 2006. After church we had an early dinner and then hung out with Abram and Jen some more before helping decorate Mum and Dad's Christmas tree. I also helped Dad set up his blog, which is going to focus on stories from his life, starting "From the Beginning"(the title of the blog).

Fun times were had, and I'm glad that we were able to come up and visit my parents. We are going to be back on Christmas morning and will be staying in town for several days. But right now, it is all about Dad and his birthday. Oh, and before Christmas, it will also be about my oldest sister-in-law, whose birthday is also on Tuesday.

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