Celebrations

It's been a little busy over the last few days. We've had a 13th birthday, a cross-country meet, and an anniversary. 

This boy was my first child to opt for a non-traditional cake for his birthday. He had a hard time deciding, but eventually chose my ultra rich chocolate cheesecake.

His "big" present was really more of a family gift. It's a board game that he can't play on his own. The boys knew we'd bought it, they convinced me back in August when we visited a board game shop downtown. They collectively decided that waiting till Christmas was too difficult, so opted to ask if we could give it to them for their brother's birthday. A little weird, but the truth is that most presents around here end up being "ours" rather than "mine". Lego's a classic in this category.

On Saturday we went to watch the older two run cross-country races, as is our usual habit in September. I'm having difficulty trying to get good photos of the boys. This time I only managed to get a back shot!

 Here's another go at the end of the race. Large swathes of beautiful green grass like this aren't common in Japan. This was a special treat. Many runners enjoyed lying down on it after their race.

On Sunday we celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary. Often it gets lost in the midst of a busy schedule and birthday celebrations (we have two birthdays as well as our anniversary in a space of ten days at the end of September). This time, however, it fell on a Sunday and we decided to make the effort to do something fun on our own. Mid-afternoon the boys went to the house of friends and played games/watched movies. 

We weren't sure where we were going, but hopped on the train and figured it out from there. It was unusual for us to do something with so little planning, but that added a fun element to it, one of the things we can't easily do with our boys is a trip like this without much planning. It ends up being way too stressful for all of us.

So we ended up in Roppongi, a well known area of Tokyo. There are many embassies there and the night-life is apparently popular. We were looking at trying a Swiss restaurant, but got there too early, so we wandered around till we found something both open and appealing. We ended up at an Egyptian restaurant. Trying something novel was fun.

The restaurant included a large TV screen, which was playing Sumo. We couldn't forget which country we were in.

What sort of food do Egyptians eat? We ate Nefertiti Salad, Falafel cakes, Egyptian Enchiladas, Perch, Mint Tea, and Cherry Juice. Accompanied by flat bread. Very tasty and not too much. I'd love to go back and try some other dishes, including the roast pigeon!

We decided to make it a progressive dinner and went for a stroll after our main course to find some dessert. We found a French Chocolate shop and enjoyed these ice creams, though the caramel ice-cream wasn't as sweet as I would have liked. Do French like their ice-cream on the bitter side?

18 years. Wow! What a privilege of forging a friendship and partnership over so many years. And we're looking forward to many more to come, Lord willing.