Today we celebrated 30 years of Daniel Rupp. For those of you who know my husband, you know that his birthday is truly something to celebrate. 30 years ago today, the world received a gift.So in my efforts to make his 30th memorable, we started the day with homemade cinnamon rolls. They were a flop. They would not cook. 40 minutes past the initial baking time I finally tugged them out of the oven and tossed my hot mits to the floor in disgust. But Daniel was a champ. He complimented me on them all the way through his first three helpings, claiming that he liked his cinnamon rolls "chewy."
During the 55 minutes that we were waiting on the rolls, Daniel opened his presents. His sister sent him an Arkansas Razorbacks Snuggie. He LOVED it. The funny thing is, we had never heard of a Snuggie until a week or two ago when his sister sent us the link to the TV commercial on youtube. We thought it was a joke. We had no idea that these things were for real. What a great idea, though. Whoever came up with that one is glad they did. It is so crazy that we have been out of the country long enough to have never heard of something that is, apparently, all the craze with you all. Similarly, my mom sent me plaid for my birthday this month and told me I am supposed to wear it with pearls. Plaid with pearls, who knew?
In the afternoon, nine of Daniel's friends appeared below our window (at my arranging) to sing to him, Rapunsel-style, and take him away for an afternoon of ultimate frisbee and Brazilian BBQ. It wasn't completely Brazilian though, as it involved cow tongue and chicken heart and something about old dancing men in tiny underwear waving feathers. Meanwhile, back at home, the boys and I were baking him a chocolate cake with chocolate icing, compliments of my new High Altitude Baking cookbook.
Then we received our babysitter and took off into the night on Daniel's electric bike toting half of the cake, a bag of popcorn kernels (with which to pop my wok popcorn) and the movie In Good Company. We spent the evening with our friends, Robin and Tanja, who are from the Netherlands, and their upper-middle aged house guest (also from the Netherlands). We laughed and ate and played with Daniel's new laser pointer, shining it out of their 10th story window at buildings all around the skyline.
Daniel tells me it was one of the best, if not THE best birthday, he's ever had. Happy 30th, babe. You are the most wonderful husband, father, brother, son, friend, and person I have ever known. I love you.
