26

That is how old I am today. I hope nobody ever asks my age again. Almost 30?! That's not possible. I'm having a hard time because, as I recently realized, being young has always been part of my identity. I was the youngest child, well...until I was 12. I was Suzie's youngest daughter, or Simone and Cirila's little sister. Now that little sister is finding white hairs. Very disturbing. I'm just grateful for those 4 months that make Brian older than me and that he too has 3 white hairs.

It's not all so bad, though. The sweet thing found some of his martial arts students to watch Eli while he took me to a fancy Swiss restaurant in Park City. The drive was picturesque through the canyon with trees delicately frosted and the snow a shade of pink from the sun setting behind us. At Adolf's we splurged on veal and a rack of lamb. Over dessert we realized that memories like that were the best present, since neither of us could remember what we had gotten the year before.

He even made me an almost flourless chocolate cake (actually I insist on that, a from scratch cake shows way more love than something from a box or store [unless its a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake, of course]).

I've also decided to copy the tradition of taking a birthday portrait. No frills or cheezy smiles. It will be fun to see how we all change from year to year.

Thank you for the birthday wishes everyone.