Birthday Girl

Today is . . . well, it's not exactly Allison Clare's birthday, as she won't have another birthday proper until 2012.  And she's not exactly one year old, since that won't happen until tomorrow.  But--today we celebrated, and we'll celebrate again tomorrow.  

Allison Clare started her day with fruit and some cereal, which she pushed out of the way when she caught her first glimpse of the doughnuts also on the table.  She had never seen doughnuts before, or tasted one, but she seems to have instinctively known that they were to be preferred over oatmeal with applesauce.  Then she got passed around among Grammy and Grandpop and Daddy and Mommy while we all did various things to get ready for her little party. 

We wanted to keep it a simple little family party, with with one set of friends who stopped in.  I roasted two beefs (made two roast beeves?), my dad sliced them very thin and tender with the meat slicer, and my mom made a rich brown gravy, which we put into a Crockpot to serve with fresh rolls.  I had made a dark chocolate cake and a buttercream frosting, and my mom put on a raspberry filling and a base layer of frosting; then I decorated it with beading, pink sanding sugar, and her monogram--I had had this idea for putting it on the cake by printing it out on paper and cutting out a stencil with a craft knife. We also had a fresh fruit salad, a strawberry-walnut vinaigrette salad, and punch to make things festive.  

Allison Clare definitely knew that it was a special day.  She wore the little party dress her Mamaw and Papaw sent her for Christmas, crawling around in it and asking for "yum-yums" when she saw all the new foods all day.  She had her own piece of cake, squishing the frosting between her fingers and sampling the cake but looking perplexed by it, much preferring a handful of blueberries (always her favorite).  She was especially delighted with the puppy book she received as a gift.  We showed a video of pictures from her first year, which I'll post here some time soon.  We saved her other gifts, from us and her grandparents, to open tomorrow because it was getting late and she'd already started looking pretty somber and tired.  

. . . And when I think of this past year, even our gratitude is infinitesimal in comparison to our debt.