Birthday Fun

It's becoming a tradition that I write a guest post for each location we're in, but I've been at a loss for what to write about in Indonesia.  Then, my wonderful wife reminded me that I just had a birthday, and convinced me that it wasn't at all narcissistic to write about my own birthday, since who can do a better job writing about my birthday than me, of course?  Who can argue with that flawless logic?  Not me.  So here it goes...

In all, it turned out to be a fairly awesome birthday, mostly by coincidence.  If you're OK with my summary, stop here, otherwise, read on for the full story...

Firstly, I had the day off.  Nobody knew it was my birthday, but it just worked out that my customer asked me to stay at the hotel on Thursday.  Having the day off on your birthday is always an immediate bonus.  It was nice to not have to worry about getting up and ready in the morning, and just take some time and hang out with Elise and Landon.  That also meant I had some time to call my parents and grandparents to talk to them on my birthday, which was nice, since it had been a little while since I talked to my grandparents.  It always makes me happy to hear from them.

After that, we took a walk down to the nearby beach in the afternoon, too, to pick up a couple more souvenirs, and let Landon work on his sand castle building skills.  Every time we walk by any dirt, he stops and says he needs to build a sand castle, so we'll take any chance we can to let him practice on real sand.

I knew that Elise and Landon had spent most of the week gathering supplies and getting ready for my birthday, and that included ordering a cake from a bakery down the street.  Their cakes always look delicious, so she thought she would take a chance and order one.  I didn't even know what flavor it was until we went to pick it up in the afternoon, but I was pleasantly surprised.  It was a dark chocolate cake, and although it wasn't really frosted, except for some whip cream along the edge, the entire cake was covered in sheets of chocolate.  The cake was moist, and tasted as good as it looks.

Of course, Elise and Landon sang to me, and I got to blow out my candles.  Landon was mesmerized by the candles and the row of whipped cream along the edge of the cake, so he got to sit on my lap and help until we were ready to cut the cake.  He got even more curious when Elise actually lit them, and I think he would have helped me blow them out, if he hadn't had his fingers in both his mouth and his nose, obstructing his airflow.  The '7' went out almost immediately, but the '2' was a little stubborn; I still got both candles in one breath, though, so I hope my wish comes true.  Then, Elise and Landon gave me their birthday cards.  Landon is getting quite good at coloring and decorating, and even signed his name with an 'L' on his card.  For my present, Elise is giving me a Landon-less beach or mountain adventure with her.  The beach is tempting, especially on a tropical island, but it's been several seasons since I have been skiing.  Which one should I choose?



Elise bought the candles several days in advance, and Landon was convinced that they were candy, so he wanted to nibble on them, and had succeeded, just a little.  It took quite a bit of convincing to get him to believe that they weren't edible, but I think he actually had to bite into one to see for himself, before he got the point.  Even so, he didn't really seem to mind chewing on the wax.

So I would say my birthday had been a win up to this point.  Relaxing day with family, and a good cake.  What more could you really ask for?  Well, just after we finished up the chocolate cake, there was a knock on our door.  We had no idea who it was, so I was completely surprised when several of the hotel staff were standing there holding a cake and a birthday card for me.  They sang, and let me blow out the candles, and then gave me my card, which had a nice note, along with an invitation to the weekly Thursday night BBQ at the hotel.  Score one for the Hotel Dafam.  This alone may have earned them an extra dot on my TripAdvisor review.  Elise told me that she didn't say anything to them, so they're either really observant, or just looked at my passport, which would still make them fairly observant.  Anyway, I was totally surprised, and completely over-caked by this point.  They brought what I think is their signature rainbow cake, with cream cheese frosting.  It looked really nice when they handed it to me, unfortunately, Landon got his hands on one of the candles, and took a bite out of the white chocolate wafer in front before Elise could get a picture.

Elise has talked about the weekly BBQ before, and I'm a fan of it, mostly because of the all-you-can-eat meat and fish.  I'm a member of several churrascaria birthday clubs in the US; it lets me eat so much meat in one sitting that I can't see straight, and it lets the cheapskate thrifty side of me feel good about getting my money's worth.  I've been getting the birthday offers in my email this month, so it's made me a little meatsick (like homesick, but better).  Texas de Brazil is the churrascaria of choice in Chicago, so I'll give a shout-out to them, their endless medium-rare beef, and their salad bar that is very palatable, yet recognizes the real reason you came.

Unfortunately, there is no churrascaria that I've found in Cilacap, so I had to make do with the hotel BBQ.  When we got down there, I was corralling Landon while Elise got him some food to get started on, and she came over to me and whispered, "Look outside: There's some sort of animal on the table!  I think it might be a dog!"  Sure enough, I looked outside on the buffet table, and there was a small animal, skinned, posed, and perfectly ready to be marinated and BBQ'd up.  I asked them what it was, and, it turns out, they had flown a lamb up from Australia for the meal.  The chefs were extremely proud of it, making various comments each time I went back for more meat, so I felt obliged to eat several cuts, and assured them that it was very much appreciated by me.  I never really understood if they got it especially for my birthday, or if they were planning to serve it that night, anyway, so, going along with the post, I'm going to say that it really was all for me.

In other news, Landon loves balloons.  All kinds of balloons.  Balloons don't love Landon, though; they tend to pop almost immediately, leading to an unhappy toddler.  Elise got some balloons for my birthday, and we decided that we could inflate one at a time.  I think Landon was still enjoying his first balloon of the evening, at this point.  Also, notice the rockin' t-shirt and shorts combo that we got him at the beach earlier in the day.

Since my birthday is so close to Thanksgiving, I'll use my last few words to say how thankful I am to have been given so many opportunities in my life.  Despite day-to-day worries, it's incredibly humbling to step back and realize how big the world is, and how much I have.  I'm thankful for my loyal and faithful wife, our adorable son, and parents and parents-in-law who let me take them all over the world.  I'm especially thankful for a Heavenly Father who knows me, and exactly what I need to grow and improve.  For me, this Thanksgiving will likely not feature a turkey, stuffing, or football, but it is still certainly a time to give thanks for the life that I have.