Happy Birthday Tori!

Tori’s actual birthday has come and gone but not her party.  To be held later this year, due to conflicting basketball games and swim meets. We happily continue our "holiday season" until her Beach Birthday Party at the end of January. Funny to think that in Hong Kong we could have had this party outside on a beach. Here in Germany, the snow is coming down and we will celebrate at our favorite water slides, thankfully indoors!

This year, Tori’s actual birthday fell on a Friday. She emerged groggily through a balloon garland on the bedroom door and had a strawberry shortcake breakfast with birthday candles.  Our birthday traditions. Another one is bringing cupcakes into school. This year, as I was putting the cupcakes in the oven, I wondered if grade eight still did this? Tori wasn’t sure she wanted to this year.  And I wiped away tears for the little girl who used to have specific ideas on what the school cupcakes would look like, what the swim team cupcakes would look like, what the party cupcakes would look like. As it turned out, Tori decided to take cupcakes in and a friend also brought in cupcakes for her lunch table. Never fear, lots and lots of cupcakes!

We’re all feeling a little wistful and nostalgic as the years go by, even the birthday girl herself! As I tucked Tori into bed, she said she wanted to write down all the things that happened on her birthday so she could always remember turning 14. As a busy teenager, she has not gotten to the journal entry yet. I decided to do it for her.

Tori's day: We all waited for her to exit her bedroom in the morning, just as excited as she was. She was sleepy but beautiful and wore a favorite sweater to school. Friends sang Happy Birthday to her throughout the day. After school she went to her cello lesson without complaint. After that, we walked in the fields behind our house, looking at the mountains and trees and river and talking about life. We ate homemade sweet and sour chicken and a chocolate celebration cake. We drank honey tea. We opened fortune cookies and Tori  was happy. We watched a new movie based on a book Tori loved. We tucked her in at midnight, marveling at how fast it is all going. Just yesterday she was a tiny baby keeping us up many late nights in Romania. Now we keep her up, trying to spend a little more time with our sweet kind happy reading swimming teenager.