Last night I went out to a womens’ event in the community, feeling somewhat conflicted about leaving the house since ds19 was home and almost everyone was sitting down to dinner together except for a couple of kids who were sick.  It had been a busy day with not having so much time to connect with most of the kids, and I really felt like I was missing out by leaving just when my family was ready to relax together.  But I enjoyed my time out, especially since in the cold weather I haven’t been seeing friends or aquaintances much.

As I was walking home, I noticed my ds10 at the window looking out and waved to him, while wondering why he was still up so late (it was 11 pm), particularly since the next morning school was starting again after the Chanuka vacation. When I opened the door to my house, I understood!  He was set up as the look out person.  🙂

The lights were out and as I entered the living room, everyone (ages 10 and up) began singing happy birthday to me!  Dd18 had set up some kind of strobe lights using the computer and put on background music, and they were all wearing party hats and huge smiles.  Dh had drawn a birthday poster, the table was set beautifully (you can’t tell in picture), the computer had been set up to flash strobe lights and play lovely background music – it was very nice and I was very,very surprised – my birthday was a month ago and they did a good job of catching me totally unaware!

Two of the kids who had been sick but were up and singing, swaying back and forth with their arms linked around each other’s shoulders along with everyone else.  It warms my heart and brings me so much joy when I see all of them together like this.  I don’t expect anything for my birthday but they didn’t want to let it pass without some recognition.  And as far as my earlier conflict about leaving the house, the kids told me how happy they were that I went out so they could plot without me being aware of anything!

Avivah