Sam's Birthday

Last Saturday, I posted a birthday wish to my father-in-law, Sam. Last Sunday, we had a birthday dinner at our house to celebrate. My in-laws, as well as S's two brothers and wives and S's niece, Alexandra, came. Sam's menu request was spaghetti. S made the pasta and the sauce and even grilled the Italian sausage.

I made a salad and garlic bread (photographed here before the oven) and set the table, so I got off easy on this one.

S's mom brought the cake.

Everyone ate up the fresh pasta and sauce and visited with one another.


Another angle of the almost-finished-dinner-portion-of-the-evening conversation.

I feel I should digress from the point of the post at this juncture to explain that wallpaper in my dining room. I did not put it up - it was there when we bought this 1951 house. The curtains, light fixture, table and chairs are of course all mine. You may not be able to tell, but the curtains are a dark blue. The plan is to one day put up white painted paneling 2/3 the way up the wall all the way around the dining room, with a plate rail on top, where blue and white dishes would reside. That is why there are blue curtains and a pewter light fixture with red and gold wallpaper.

I should also say I regularly get compliments on said wallpaper. That's nice - I'm glad some people like it. It's just not my cup of tea. Those same people may hate the idea of my plan for the dining room. That's life.

Sam opened presents while we cleared the dinner plates to get ready for dessert.


People passed the baby around the table. Here, Mark, her dad is hurling her in the air toward S.


Alexandra's grandmother, S's mom, had a turn at holding her.

Then, the dessert was ready for presentation. Birthday cake and ice cream for everyone.

Sam successfully blew out all the candles on his cake.

(You can also see another little item that needs removing in the room here - that's right, at some point in time, someone installed a phone jack in the dining room. When the panels go up, the jack will not be staying.)

It was a nice little family gathering to celebrate another birthday with Sam. We wish him many more Happy Birthdays.