An Early Birthday Surprise!

I've been a bit pouty about my birthday coming up next week....it's a big one and I really wanted to do something epic like take an amazing trip somewhere. And here I am, stuck in rainy, cold Portland. 

Today I had the grandchildren, as I usually do on Saturdays. It was raining buckets and cold and miserable, so we set out to decorate a gingerbread castle. But first we had to "glue" the walls together which of course take hours to dry. Then the doorbell rang.

(And the walls fell apart later anyway...I need to find some really sticky frosting.)

The day was completely rescued by a FedEx delivery from Harry & David, a company here in southern Oregon that makes terrific gift baskets. We opened up a birthday extravaganza sent by no other than my blip friend Energia from Maryland. We've become great friends over this past year. It all started when I had a knee procedure in January and couldn't go anywhere, so she reached out and suggested a virtual coffee date and we realized how much we enjoyed talking. More recently I did a long-distance virtual garden design/consultation with her which you might have read a bit about. (She's becoming an avid gardener!) And we have plans to go to Iceland together next year...pandemic willing. 

So imagine my utter surprise when I discovered that this party in a bucket was from her! My granddaughter immediately declared that we must have a tea party (you might remember how much she loves her tea parties). After eating half the birthday cookies and a bunch of cheese and crackers, she declared the party to be "the best EVER"!  (I saved the wine for later!)

Not long afterwards, the doorbell rang again - this time it was UPS delivering a mysterious box from Infusion Chocolates. It was a box of the most gorgeous morsels I have ever seen (see extra - we've eaten several). Even the box is a work of art. But no note at all. But Energia enlightened me sometime later today. See her post here in which she tells the story of Karen trying to order chocolates to surprise a friend. I'm assuming it's all because I've made Gwen very happy with her new garden, which pleases Karen.

And me? I'm happy too! Isn't Blip an amazing place? What a way to start a year of birthday celebrations!