My mom likes to tell the story about how she went in to labor with me every year on my birthday. It's not a particularly crazy story, but it is meaningful to her (and me) because it started out the night of her birthday...
It was December 13th, 1988 - the night of my moms 25th birthday. She was 9 months pregnant with me and says that after she got home from her birthday celebration with family she went up the stairs and sat down in the middle of the empty nursery. She likes to tell me how she sat there and rubbed her belly and said "Okay Meggie Kaye, my birthday is over so you can come out now." Legend has it that the very next day, while my mom was Christmas shopping at the mall with 2 of her sisters, her water broke in the women's restroom and she went in to labor - I made my appearance the following day on December 15th. (I don't mean to brag or anything, but I would just like to point out how obedient I was as a kid - even from the womb ;))
Because my birthday is so close to my moms, we often have a joint family celebration! This year, since it was my moms 50th and we went down to the beach house, we got to celebrate my birthday there as well. My parents made the family a delicious birthday breakfast Sunday morning (breakfast foods happen to be my favorite) and I got to spend time with my lovely family until it was time to head home.
Mark surprised me by having flowers waiting for me when we got home along with some presents.
Gosh, isn't it pretty? I was so surprised. Mark's not one to buy jewelry for presents all of the time, so it's pretty special when he picks something out for me. And I think he did a good job. :)
He also took me out to the Melting Pot - its a fondue restaurant with a-mazing food. Mmm my tastebuds do a little dance just thinking about it. We were planning on getting the full 4 course meal which includes cheese dip, salads, a meat entree (I usually get the seafood because I love the salmon!) and then a chocolate dessert. Buuuut since we had such a late big breakfast we weren't quite feeling hungry enough for all of that - so we skipped the meat portion.
For the cheese dip (I like to get the fiesta cheese without the jalepenos) they bring out bread, tortilla chips, veggies and apples to dip. I had never heard of dipping apples in cheese until I went to the melting pot, but its not too bad. :)
The chocolate is my favorite part! My favorite is the Banana's Foster chocolate - I could eat that straight off a spoon without dipping anything! But Mark's not a big fan of Bananas - like he hates them can't even stand the smell of them haha - so I sacrificed and got a cookies and cream chocolate dip instead ;) They bring out marshmallows coated in graham crackers or oreos, (which you can roast over your chocolate as the waiter sets your chocolate on fire with a little flambee action) they also bring out strawberries, banana's, brownies, rice krispy treats, short bread chunks and then my personal favorite - a small slice of cheese cake. I just don't want it to end when I'm there.
And I'm only there maybe once a year because it's not in the average joe price range for regular old dinner date. Nope, this place is saved just for special occasions. But I think that why I love it so much, you know? If there is a Melting Pot near you and you haven't been, I highly recommend a splurge to try it out. It is a fun experience. You can tell by the pictures that it has a romantic ambiance about it with the dim lighting and its a dinner that takes a while. You can count on being there for over an hour - depending on how many course you get - and I find that thats a nice change from the go, go, go dinners we do on a more frequent basis.
Crazy to think I am the age now that my mom was when she had me! In fact my mom had 2 babies by this age. Guess I better get working on that ; )
Here's to being a quarter of a century old! Life is good. : )
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