Why celebrate birthdays?!

April has arrived again, and in fact, as I write this there are less than two hours left of the month. Generally I love April, because it means spring should be around the corner if it has not arrived already (this year spring in Sweden was late), the days have grown longer so biking in the evening is much more pleasant, and then there is the little matter of my own birthday.

I have always loved having birthdays (although, as I have now hit the big 3-5, I confess I would like to have birthdays without actually getting older). As a child in Gary, Minnesota, I remember fun parties with classmates, and looking for presents that had been hidden somewhere in our living room. But unfortunately, since then, I have actually forgotten a lot of birthday celebrations. (A sign of age?!) This is why I dutifully take notes in Yaminah's birthday journal I have bought, to help her remember her birthdays in the future. But for myself, I have not gone to those lengths. Why? I might just have to start to call up people to reconstruct a type of birthday journal, after the fact, asking detective-esque questions such as, "What do you remember from the event? Do you know what the suspect was wearing?" etc, etc, since I am useless when it comes to remembering details when it is about myself.

One could ask what the point is of celebrating birthdays every year, now that I have most definitely left childhood behind. I think there are many reasons. First of all, birthdays are a great excuse to get together with good friends. For the last few years I have invited over a group of girls and we have had a great time together, talking and laughing (and Tomas has had to witness this as the lone male presence). Birthdays are a time for eating good food (including the beautiful birthday cake Tomas made this year, Birthday Cake Recipe). I also know that I love being able to celebrate my friends' birthdays. But this is not the only reason I find birthdays important. I think that in our stressful lives, and in this world that seems to be more and more violent and dangerous (with people close to us struggling with depression; with Boston bombings; unrest in the Middle East; another China earthquake, and a tragic loss of life in the Bangladesh building collapse recently in the news--the list could go on and on--), stopping for a little while to spend time together and focus on celebrating life is more crucial than ever. Because as the years go by, and our eyes are opened to more and more struggles that our fellow people around us, both near and far, the blessings in our lives also become (or should become) illuminated. Yes, there is sadness, but there is also joy; yes, there is tragedy, but there is also friendship and family. There is also even death, yet we can choose to celebrate life.

And so I celebrated another birthday. It was great, and I realized I am blessed with my own family and friends, both near and far (and of course I missed those who are too far away to be here for such events).

I hope you also have a good year, and when it is time for your birthday, I hope you have a wonderful celebration, no matter how you choose to mark the occasion. :)

Fall, friends, home, and pumpkin

For the past few weeks, Yaminah and I have been relaxing and enjoying our extra time here in the States before we fly back to Sweden on Saturday. The gorgeous weather is one reason our time has been so great. It is hard not to love perfect, warm weather and blue skies.

But last week we had a cooler day, with rain even, and the evenings have definitely started cooling off. Inevitably when this happens every year, I start to get excited about fall, or at least, certain aspects of fall. Or perhaps it is that for some reason, fall is the season every year when I feel a little homesick for home. But on a beautiful, crisp fall day, when leaves have begun changing and the sky is a perfect shade of blue, and apple trees are heavily laden with apples begging to be made into all kinds of things, like French Apple Pie, I love fall. And fall in Minnesota is wonderful. Perhaps fall also makes me feel a tad nostalgic for the beginning of the school year, and memories.

In any case, on Saturday we fly back to Sweden, and there is one thing on my mind that I want to accomplish before we go, and that is: pumpkin. Eat foods with pumpkin...drink hot drinks with pumpkin. I have been on a mission for the past week, even calling Starbucks to ask when their Pumpkin Spice Lattes will be on the menu. According to one source, they might be available in the middle of this week. (Yay!) In that case, this weekend, before we go, you can find me at a Starbucks, enjoying my all-time favorite, Pumpkin Spice Latte.

Last night, thanks to Mom and Bruce babysitting, I went out with my good friends, Stephanie and Danell. We went to the Olive Garden and had a great time, laughing and talking, and then laughing some more. The food was also good, but except for the company, the best part was the dessert: Pumpkin Cheesecake. It tasted like a slice of Thanksgiving. I loved it, and I savored every bite. How is it possible to be nostalgic for something, at the same time as one is already doing it?

I suppose my obsession with being able to enjoy a Pumpkin Spice Latte before we go back to Sweden is actually a semi-subconscious attempt to prolong my stay at home, perhaps as if digesting a food item could bring a little piece of home with me when we go. Or...perhaps it is simply because it is delicious!

In preparation for supper tonight, with Darin, Brandi and the kids coming to join us, Yaminah and I made Pumpkin Cupcakes for dessert. They turned out great, so I thought I would share the recipe with you. View it here.

I can hardly believe the summer has gone by so fast, and that fall is just around the corner. As always, a beginning of one thing is also an end to another. Looking back, this summer has been great because it has been restful. But most importantly, it has been about spending lots of quality time with family, especially including David and Erin's wedding; staying a lot at Sarah and Scott's house; camping with Dad; staying with Mom and Bruce, plus being able to see close friends. Yaminah is now completely fluent in English as well as Swedish. One other reason I have loved this summer is that Tomas and I have been able to spend a lot of time with Yaminah, and I have even had nearly three weeks extra with her. We have had such fun, sleeping in, relaxing during the day, having pretend tea parties, taking walks and bike rides. It will be hard to go back to class and bring her back to daycare again, but it is inevitable; summer has to come to an end. And luckily, fall is the next season, and it is my favorite. And with fall there will be new beginnings again--the beginning of my (hopefully) final school year, and of course time with our Swedish family and friends.

Could it be that the lovely, pleasant aspects of fall--the pumpkins, spices, apples, colored leaves, blue skies--are a way to ease us into the following season, the cold, dark winter?