Annivirthday*

There seem to be no few requisites to be a part of our family.  First and foremost seems to be you need to love one of us and at least enjoy being with a couple of the people in the family.  Somewhere in the rest of the mix is the ability to need, enjoy, or at least be able to tolerate, a bit of wackiness.  Not quite sure why or where the source for that might be, but the acceptance of goofy seems to be a common thread.

Because of geography and our sensibilities we don't get together regularly.  Portland is a long drive away.  And I guess from another perspective, Pasadena is a long drive away.  Even for those of us in Pasadena the hours we work seem to limit the time we can spend together.  Graveyard four days a week and one regular day shift increases the value of getting sleep whenever one can get it.

In any case, one of the things we've begun to do is to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries whenever we get together.  So far this year we've had a late winter/early spring birthday celebration.

Kate and girls came down to visit and one of the "requisite" experiences for most of their visits is an In 'N Out burger meal.  When folks are here less than a week it's time for combos.  So the cake aspect of the party was ditched and the Birthday Burger Box was on our dining room table.  We celebrated three birthdays in one feel swoop.

This past weekend James and I traveled to Crater Lake to be with the whole Portland side of the familia.  It was night when we finally got to celebrate so there's no pictures, but I will let you know that products from Bimbo and Hostess were involved.  Imagine each of these with a candle burning brightly in the center.  You can use your imagine to add the Hostess Cupcake, too.  

The girls are old enough that I presented them with a problem that they were able to solve.  I explained that we are celebrating both wedding and birthday anniversaries.  But that it is unwieldy to list/sing Happy Birthday and Happy Anniversay to us.  So what might be a new word, a combo word we might use?  Lili being the wordsmith came up with "Happy Annivirthday*". It scanned.  The candles were lit and we sang.  I have to wonder if the other campers were wondering if they heard anniversary or birthday.  No matter.  A new tradition was born as we celebrated our being together.

  

I found both images via pinterest and it appears they picked up the images elsewhere so.... here are links to Marinela and to Hostess.

http://www.marinelausa.com/en/snack-cakes/napolitano

http://hostesscakes.com

* Annivirthday (copyright pending)