it happened

Yup. It happened. I went and turned 30.

If someone had told me when I was 20 that I would spend my 30th birthday doing chemistry homework and going for a 17.5km run, I would have punched that someone square in the face. Then I would have sat back down on the couch to my meal of smokey barbecue Doritos and peanut butter m&m's, and spent a good day trying to conquer the legend of Zelda on SNES. My how times have changed. I also renewed my drivers license (now you're not allowed to smile for those pictures either!), had brunch with my sister Pamela, and had a good talk with my sister Emily, calling all the way from London.

We had a great soiree on Saturday night, packing our apartment with party goers ranging from almost two, to almost 62. The almost two year old was a great help in showing us all the simple joy in blowing out birthday candles and playing with helium balloons. We had a great tea party spread including mini cheddar and green onion scones with roasted red pepper and cream cheese in the middle, little canapes with chickpea mash and sliced radishes on top, and mini veggie Jamaican patties. Several varieties of dainty tea sandwiches cut into little wedges (no crusts obviously - my good friend Kimmie took care of eating them. Waste not!): egg salad, cucumber, roasted miso glazed tofu with roasted red pepper and spinach, to name a few. We also made pizzas and cut them up into little squares to fit the theme.

And the food that other folks brought was pretty spectacular too, from potstickers to cream puffs to home made crackers and cheese to strange little marzipan pigs to mini cupcakes. Oh so good. And (save for a few of the pigs) there was practically nothing left at the end of it all.

I made pink lemonade/vodka/soda cocktails which I served from my teapot, and my friend Chris made an insanely good celebration cocktail with champagne, soda, and St. Germain. Paul used the left over St. Germain to whip up a few (several) rounds of tasty shooters which came out towards the end of the night (after the almost two year olds and almost 62 year olds had left). Best of all, those who had been threatening to bring copious amounts of Jagermeister respectfully left it at home. Maybe my counter threat of making them do shots of Robitussin were heeded.

Red wine was spilled on the carpet, glasses were broken (not the good ones - we kept those locked away), and I'm pretty sure a new romance may have been sparked. All in all a great party!

I got some great gifts, the very best being a list sent to me by my sister Emily of 30 favourite fond memories / things she admires / things she thinks make me kind of unique, and my SIL Camilla sent me 30 text messages over about 24 hours with her 30 favourite memories of us together. Just goes to show the best things in life are free. Adding another Le Creuset piece to my collection was pretty sweet too.