Birthday!

Ever since I passed the age 26 I’ve begrudgingly greeted my birthday celebrations. 
Getting older is not my favorite thing. 
I’m working on adjusting my attitude about the inevitability of growing up, and I have to say that my birthday in China was among the best ones of my life.  In addition to getting tons of gifts from my family in America, I got to go to Hong Kong and hang out in Disneyland with my fantastic sister-in-law! 
Plus, I got to have a joint birthday party with two of my favorite people, Jesse and James!

 The birthday kids! Two people I love with all my heart!  My sweet friend,Timo, threw an impromptu party at his house.  He made Mexican food and ordered pizza, and people played games and it was really nice.

 Roomie, Nicole.  I love this picture because it makes me look so tall ;)

 For me the highlight was giving James the cake I had made for him.  I'd originally planned a much bigger thing and had my sister bring the doll, toilet and beer cans from America.  The design had to be simplified because we had the party super last minute, but I feel like I still captured a pretty accurate likeness of James.

 Timo surprised Jesse and I with a cake of our own, featuring a rock star Barbie on top.  It was so silly. 

 And great.

 Below is a video shot by our friend Jarod, another Brit.  In it James describes the cake and demonstrates how the doll sings. (I give him endless crap about his singing voice.) Also, I want it noted that I asked my sister to find a Ken doll with a red hoodie because that's what James always wears. She could only find a blue one so she took it home and dyed it! Is she the greatest or what? This video is courtesy of my friend, Jarod, another funny British man.

Below is a list of the super random, and awesome, assortment of gifts that I got at Timo’s house.  Bet you can’t guess which ones are from Chinese and which are from foreigners. 

1 Minnie Mouse Lunchbox filled with Chinese “candy”

1 bag of pea snacks

1 miniature cheesecake

1 photo album

1 jar of fruit cocktail

1 Michael Bolton Duets CD

1 bootleg DVD of Andrew Marr’s History of the World

1 CD of traditional Chinese music

Several bottles of beer

I was genuinely excited to get each thing and thrilled to celebrate with such great friends! It was a wonderful birthday!