The Big Six Oh!

Yup, yesterday was my 60th birthday.   Enough said about that!
This was what our yard looked like yesterday when we woke up....

The sign reads....."Debbie says 60 is the new 40!"   It made me chuckle to see the joggers slow down as they gawked at the flamingos and then stopped to read the sign.   Our retiree neighbors also got a big kick out of it, too.

What a busy day we had!   Jeremy flew in and Julie and family picked him up at the airport on their way into town.   How exciting it is for us to have all our kids and grandkids in one place at the same time!

Thank goodness Julie played photographer and grabbed some shots for me.   Love these of the grandkids....
Some posed just so....

....and some silly.   Of course, the boys just love to ham it up.....it's hard to sit still when you know there are Christmas presents waiting for you inside the house......and Grammy won't let you open them yet!   What's up with that???

I have to back up a moment here and set the stage for the pics that follow.    Because we share our kids and grands with their in-laws, we sometimes need to juggle our holidays.....and since my big birthday occurred this year, we decided to combine Christmas and my birthday into one big celebration.  

Just this once, I was willing to break my own rule about not mixing the two.   After all, December 23rd is NOT Christmas Day, it's my birthday!   The whole family makes sure that any birthday cards or wrapping paper coming my way has zero hint of Christmas.  But in order to allow us to all be together we decided to do it all at once.   Whew!

So, to make it easy on myself, I ordered yummy Italian food from Cesarina's on East Bay.   OH. My.  Scrumptious!    We all feasted on stuffed shells, lasagna, chicken parmesan, meatballs and Italian bread.   And, of course, no family meal would be complete without a Greek salad from Greek Village.   After the meal, I asked Julie to help me get some hot chocolate started in the crock pot.   I wanted it to be hot when we returned from our outing.

I anxiously kept checking my watch because I was the only one that knew what was coming next.   Julie rounded up all the kids and took them outside and they were told to wait for a strange vehicle to arrive and when it did they needed to let me know.   Boy, were they ever surprised when this pulled up to the curb.........

 It's the Rocketship Car!   That seats 12!   And drives around town!  This used to be part of an amusement park ride in Ohio.  Joe, the owner and driver, bought it and converted it to road use and drives happy people around Largo in the winter and somewhere in Ohio in the summer.

Here we all are, ready for "take off".   There was a lot of giggling going on, let me tell you.   The grandsons were so quiet, Dawn says she thinks they were completely mesmerized.

Nate was really enjoying the breeze in his hair and the slightly loud Christmas carols coming out of the speakers in front of each seat.

That's one happy kid!   The funny part is that about halfway thru the ride Nate fell fast asleep in his seat.   I think the fresh air lulled him to sleep.

 Because Joel and I sat in the back, the only pics I got were the back of everyone's heads.   Except for Dawn and Jarrad.   Who said they'd never forget this birthday!   Ha!   That was the idea!!

 Joe, the driver, drove us up to Clearwater Beach and back.   I think the thing that was the most fun about the whole experience was seeing the happy expressions on the faces of the people who stopped to wave at us as we drove by.

We did a lot of smiling and waving...

 Julie and Cameron chatting it up with Jeremy.

 How cute is that expression from Jackson?    Happy, happy boy.   He says I'm the fun Grammy.   Awwww, how sweet is that?

So glad Jeremy could be here to share in all of our fun and to help make this birthday a truly memorable one for me.

We arrived back home just after the sun set into the Gulf of Mexico.   After an hour of carols blasting around us I think we were all ready to go inside and open our Christmas presents.    Pretty cool ride, though, pretty cool ride.  If you're interested in reading more about the rocket ship car, go to www.rocketshipcar.com.

 

I had almost forgotten about the birthday cake until Julie brought it out and asked me where my candles were.  Ummmmmm......somewhere in the storage unit, I replied.   She wouldn't hear of not having a candle, so we improvised and used a Yankee candle instead as the family sang Happy Birthday to me.   I guess it was appropriate to use such a big candle for such a big birthday!  Whew, we were all a little windblown after the ride in the rocketship car.

Yes, this is a flourless chocolate cake.   My favorite dessert in the whole world!   I was tempted to just put my whole face in it but decided I had better share it with everyone instead.

But now, the boys are sooooo ready to start opening their gifts.

Oh my goodness, isn't Sydney beautiful?  She's getting so grown up.

We finally handed out presents to all the anxious kids.   I just loving hearing all the squeals of delight as they rip open the paper and expose the surprise present inside.   Three little boys automatically gravitated to Joel's office space where they could hunker down with their "stash" of new toys and played quietly for the rest of the evening.    

Yummy marshmallows

We adults all settled into the living room with our coffee, hot chocolate and desserts.   Julie baked up a storm the day before and brought Christmas cookies(all my favorites), cherry nut cakes(a family recipe), and homemade marshmallows for the hot chocolate(my request as a present for me).   As we exchanged presents I tried to soak up every single moment and lock away the memory so I could conjure up the image whenever I wanted to remember this special day with my loving family.

I'm sure you are like me in that you take the time to find presents that are meaningful for each and every member of your family.   Some years it seems like it's easier to find just the right thing for everyone and some years you struggle a little more to make the gift "personal".    Well, this year, I knew we had nailed it for Jarrad.   You've seen the pics of his VW bus restoration.   Here's Jarrad's gift:

 Jarrad's gift was the last one we handed out. 

I know he's smiling here, but he was also crying.    When he saw his gift he says he broke down with tears of joy.

I

I didn't want all of Jarrad's hard work on the bus to go unremembered, so I blew up a pic I took the day we did a photo shoot together, and paired it with a custom license plate and framed it all in one big frame.    He called me this morning and said it is already hanging on the wall in his office at work.   Lots of hugging and tears all around....just sayin'.    We're so proud of all our kids and their accomplishments and the holidays are a great time to remember your loved ones and to tell them how special they are to you.

And so from the Roberts family to yours, we'd like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a joyous holiday season with your family.

Debbie (just one day over 59!)