Thursday, March 1, 2012

Birthdays

My grandson, Maxwell, turned twelve today and we went to his house to celebrate the event. Erica made a chicken soup with country noodles. We drank Martinelli's and some really awful stuff from IKEA. There will be no repeats of that poisonous, pink sparkly lingonberry drink. Harrison, his older brother, baked the birthday cake. I love a man who bakes.

Anyway, we sat around the kitchen table telling Max stories and then someone asked him, "What's been your favorite year so far?

His eyes looked heavenward in thought. "The year before I was born." He smirked.

"Like when you were in the womb?" we asked.

"No," Max said. "That was boring. Before then."

"Ahh, in the pre-existance," we said. "Why was that the best year?"

"I ran a coffee shop up there. I liked running my own business."

Max was born on the same day my sister, Joyce, was born. She died at four months when I was nine. I know this is crazy sentimental speak, but I like to think she told Max over a cup of coffee that he should be born on her birthday.

And he was.

Joyce is keeping the coffee shop running while Max is here enjoying his new Ipod.

Happy Birthday, Max. Happy Birthday, Joyce.


6 comments:

  1. Max seems to be blessed with a great sense of humour and story telling.

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  2. If we all had jobs in the pre-existence then I think I owned a candy store, one of the old fashioned kind with glass jars that made it possible to see every yummy delight where you drool and daydream and take forever to make a selection.
    Happy Birthday to Max and Joyce! So lucky to be so loved.
    Just have to add although I am sad about the class I concur with your reasoning - and there is always next year! Or maybe we could combine it with a trip to Hawaii - kill two birds with one stone - and to make it really awesome let's do it in February when we all feeling a bit of the winter blues. Here in Calgary we get alot of blue sky sunshine days but we're no where near the beach!

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  3. Oh, and I wanted to say I love the new heading artwork. They look quite sturdy. The other day while driving my daughter to school we saw this massive crow and she noted that he was flying all loopy like. We were hoping he didn't fall and get hit by a car.

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  4. Max's pre-existance rox. Also, he has a great name. We almost named Sam Max.

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  5. Oh, my.

    I had asked our daughter/the bride-to-be to taste-test some apple-lingonberry sparkling somethingorother from Ikea, for her wedding reception.

    I wonder if it is the same as the "really awful stuff" you mention.

    You may have just saved her a drive up to D.C.!

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