birthday brunch, bursting baking and blessings

photos to follow when i can be on my computer and not manuel's laptop in the bathroom while sea takes a bath (the rest of my family is sleeping)...so yesterday was my birthday. it seemed much different for some reason. usually i get all analytical, reflecting on past years, dreaming about the future, trying to figure out where i'm "at" each year around my birthday (more so even than new years resolutions)...but this year my birthday just came and i celebrated it and life is moving on the way i suppose it should...i wanted to briefly blog on the topic along with all my other "b" ideas...

first of all, i feel badly that many of my recent san diego friends, friends from playgroup, blogging friends, etc. were not invited to our joint birthday party (manuel's birthday was feb 12). see, i just didn't feel we could handle a group of 100 or so people in our new home...we still have so much to unpack, little furniture to sit in, it is freezing cold in our house most of the time, etc. so instead of inviting just a few of my closest playgroup friends (you know who you are) and offending others in the playgroup i don't know as well (i would have wanted to invite the whole playgroup), i just stuck with people in the coop preschool and friends i had made in san diego before playgroup. i still feel badly about this decision and think next time i'll err on just having too many people...but that said, with trying to keep the list small, we still had close to 40 people in our home yesterday for birthday brunch.

it was potluck style so we had everything from traditional indian food (including a cream of wheat cereal with chai like spices and homemade chai) to homemade coffee cake from a friend with a wonderful website with her own recipes (link will have to come later) that are gluten free, to fruit salad, pastries from whole foods, homemade quiche, breakfast potatoes, cinnamon rolls...fresh squeezed orange and grapefruit juice (both from our neighbors' yards)...i may have to finish this list later as sea is ready to get out of the bath...

i just wanted to share one very noteworthy part of the day...an hour and a half in, when most people had arrived, manuel and i were talking about whether we should go ahead and have a blessing for the food (knowing some friends are not religious and/or might be uncomfortable)...i had just told my one friend who is pregnant to come out of the kitchen and just as we were introducing ourselves and everyone was learning how we knew one another, there was a huge explosion with glass literally flying 10 feet ...the egg fritatta dish that had just come out of the oven was not meant to be put on a hot burner (my poor decision) and the entire lasagne size glass pan blew all over our kitchen...i shudder to think if anyone had been in there...and there were so many children, too! so truly i feel so blessed that we have God taking care of us and that i went with my intuition to bless the food...and our friends...i am blessed in so many ways...