Birthday brunch

What better way to celebrate my 32nd birthday than with 2 wonderful friends! We went to brunch in the city and just thoroughly enjoyed sitting, talking, drinking coffee, eating, laughing, sitting back and relaxing... with no children! I adore my kids... but man-o-man it sure is nice to have a grown up day every once in a while and believe me.... it's been a while. We talked about life, work, family, vacation ideas, and even controversial topics. Oh it was nice to not have to use the 'mommy tone' or remind little boys how a gentleman should act in public or to be cutting food up into teeny-tiny-bite-size pieces, picking up a thrown toy, bottle, or food, or to have to take a bathroom trip for the umpteenth time.... I hope you get what I'm saying. If you don't, well, send me an email and I will gladly enlighten you as to what goes on around here. haha.

So after we finished we headed out into the cold, snow covered city. I love the city. Especially during the holidays. We got hot, made-to-order waffles. Ohhhh.... so yummy. Drizzled with chocolate sauce and no one around to share....yes, Happy Birthday to me :)

We found an adorable out of the way Christmas shop with cute little trinkets and ornaments. I don't drink hot cider, but the smell of it in the air mingled with the scent of Maroni's (chestnuts) roasting gives me such a cozy feeling. The Christmas lights and everyone shopping or standing around in their coats, hats, scarves.... and well, just enjoying being surrounded with buildings that are used daily--and older than my homeland! Such a wonderful part of living in Europe.

Thank you, Karen & Angela (and more importantly our hubbies who watched the kiddos). I had a great day!

**on my actual birthday (December 1st), Danny took me to breakfast with Gracie while the boys were in school. Then a couple of days later the whole family took me to lunch at a Mongolian restaurant that we all really like and then home to a cake made from scratch by the guys and presents. Our week was so incredibly busy that we had to celebrate it over a couple of hours on different days. haha. It was a good week.