Mike’s 26th Birthday
15 Mar
Well, it’s official: I’m getting old. I’m on the wrong side of 25 as the old saying goes. Pretty soon I’ll be telling Laurie to turn off her darn rock-and-roll music, and lecturing to her about how, back in my day, I had to walk to school. Uphill, both ways, in the snow. Anyway, even though my actual birthday isn’t until the 16th, this weekend we headed up to Manassas to celebrate the Reda’s annual “Mike’s Birthday + St. Patrick’s Day dinner.”
Saturday morning we packed up the car and headed north. After a few minutes catching up with Ma & Pa Reda, the festivities began. We haven’t been around the whole family since Christmas so I had forgotten just how many of us there are. By my count, there were about 24 humans at the Reda household. Wowza.
The Huebners were also kind enough to make the trip and they brought Alli and her boyfriend Ben along too. Poor Ben, every time he comes to Richmond he has to do some kind of heavy lifting. And since we like to honor traditions, before he knew it, he was outside putting a refrigerator in the back of a truck.
It was just nice to have all of the Redas and the Huebners together again, and to have a delicious Irish dinner. And as if that wasn’t enough, we got an old-timey popcorn maker! The home theater is one step closer to completion. Of course I still need to get the projector, the 8-foot screen, the reclining leather seats with cup holders, and a few hundred more Blu-Rays, but it’s a start.
On Sunday we had an amazing brunch (prepared by Man-Chef Marcus) at the Mancini house with Marcus, Sarah, Diana and Ramsay. The afternoon mostly consisted of playing Wii Sports and eating birthday cake, then it was off to the District for dinner at Red Rocks. If you haven’t had pizza from Red Rocks, you haven’t lived. More food and – you guessed it – more birthday cake. I might be 15 pounds heavier than I was on Friday, but it was totally worth it.
Of course the weekend went by too fast, and we didn’t get to spend as much time with everyone as we wanted, but it was still a great way to celebrate the biggest occasion of the year. Thanks to everyone for celebrating with us, and for all the birthday wishes. As a side-note, I will be accepting birthday gifts through the end of March. I enjoy Blu-Rays and cash.
For my part, it was my pleasure to bring you into the world on March 16, 1984 and to be the very first to sing Happy Birthday to you and to have done so every year since!
And for MA and Pa, we spent a very nice weekend with family and I consider Ben family because he’s risked hernias on several occasions when he didn’t have to do so and it was our pleasure once again to host Kelsey who the cat now believes lives here but just keeps out of her way most of the time.