Chris's Birthday Weekend

Chris turned 26th yesterday and we had a weekend of festivities. Saturday night we went out to dinner (compliments of Laura and Josh) at Romeo's, a small, romantic Italian restaurant voted Austin's best date spot. We went all out for dinner, which was pretty special considering we rarely go out to eat...but this was for a special occasion. We started out with calamari, then bread and rolls, Chris had a chardonnay and I had a pinot grigio, Chicken Marsala for me, Shrimp Romeo for him, and a dessert to share. While he was in the restroom, I asked the waiter if they did anything for birthdays, so after our meal, she brought out a brownie sundae with a candle on top. He was surprised. After stuffing our bellies, we headed over to the hotspot Saturday night activity on the East side of town--Bingo! When we moved to Austin, we were surprised out how many Bingo places there were and we always said that one day we'd go play. It was so much fun even though we didn't ring in the big $400-$700 of the night's winnings. Those people are intense. Not just senior citizens were in their, and they tell you if you're being too loud--or if you called Bingo when you really didn't have one (I learned from experience). They are focused. So, I had to take a picture of our cards. To Chris, I'm sure it seemed as though the celebration was over, but I had a little something in the making and we just had to wait. After church last night, we headed back to our apartment quickly because Chris had forgotten to send some important emails for work to Singapore. It was perfect him being in the study because I worked on picking up the house and putting the finishing touches to his birthday cake. At 9:30, tons of friends from our Community Group from church and a guy from AMD showed up to surprise Chris and celebrate with us. Chris was surprised, and I was too, especially since I had expected 7 people to come, and 17 came instead! It was a lot of fun having our little apartment packed full of good friends. I made the famous Dora Cake, Chris's favorite and his mom's recipe, and we had two kinds of ice cream. It was a blessing to us that others came to share in Christopher's birthday. A fun memory for our first year in Austin.