Having a Birthday

We've been gone

For a month!

Arriving home late in the evening

two days

before Husband Jim's birthday

But I managed to pull together a birthday dinner

for the birthday boy

Sort of a surprise

(it would have been if guest Anne hadn't "blabbed"

and Daughter Sarah said "so I guess you're having company for dinner" during her birthday wishes phone call)

The group which we call

The Cape Codders

all came.

A busy day

Cleaning the very dirty house

(Somehow the "Cleaning Fairy" didn't get my memo)

and a dinner for 8.

But I took the easy way out --

cheese and crackers and olives and pickles

as appetizers with drinks in the living room

And a simple table for a simple meal

The old dough bowl with the Fall pumpkins as the centerpiece

Rattan chargers instead of a tablecloth

Soup spoons only,

A Spode blue Italian plate

And well worn blue hemp napkins in silver napkin rings

The dinner -- simply chili

With cheeses and onions and ketchup and vinegar

And baskets and baskets of saltines

More than one had more than one bowl.

And since it was a birthday . . . 

There was cake

(and ice cream)

The 40th red velvet birthday cake that I've made for Husband Jim

It's tradition!

(It did take me a few years of marriage before it became

the birthday cake)

But ever since on November 18, I've made one.

Alas, there aren't the proper number of candles on the cake

I didn't have that many and I'm not sure there would have been enough room on the cake top!

The middle candle represents the six decades

While the candles around the edge represent the years.

That plan saves us from having to call the Fire Department!

It's Thursday and I'm joining Susan at Between Naps On the Porch for Tablescape Thursday and Cuisine Kathleen for Let's Dish