Birthday lunch for C.

We went out to the Thai restaurant for C's birthday lunch today. She drove here after school (just half a day on Fridays) and I surprised her with birthday balloons when she walked in the door.

We're still not using the dining room table (following the directions of our famous woodworker who just refinished the top of it), so I set up the smaller table in the living room with the gold-star decorated plates, tea cups and birthday napkins and place cards (Mardi Gras masks), and little baskets of chocolates. I found cute little candles that spelled out HAPPY BIRTHDAY-- each candle was one of those letters, so the cake that C and I made yesterday was transformed from a pretty cream and fruit-topped cake into a picture-perfect birthday cake.

We went out to lunch first, though, then enjoyed the cake afterwards and C opened up her gifts. When C got here this afternoon, she was dressed up in a cute pink, red and white dress--- looked like something from the 1960s... very young, very trendy, and she looks great in all of that because she's so petite. C is the first to say that she's not a "girly-girl," so it's always a nice surprise when I see her in a dress or skirt. C's first choice is always going to be shorts and flip-flops or jeans and boots.... she is all about comfort.

The very first time that my husband and I took C out for a "grown-up" dinner was for her 13th birthday.... the three of us were going to our then-favorite Italian restaurant, which was on the fancy side. Whenever my husband and I went there for lunch or dinner, we always got dressed up-- no shorts, no jeans, nothing too casual.

On the night we picked up C for that 13th birthday celebration, my husband was wearing a jacket and tie, and I was wearing a black skirt and heels and a fancy-schmancy top with a jacket. We got to C's house and she was in jeans and sneakers. When C's dad saw how dressed up we were, he told C that she should go and change her clothes. Before he finished his sentence, I saw the smile on C's face starting to fade away, so I quickly said that C looked just fine the way she was and there was no need for her to change into anything else. "But you two are all dressed up!" I told her dad that we were wearing what we wanted to wear, and C should wear just what she wanted to wear. C's smile came back in a heart-beat.

And what did it matter? Our aim that night was to take C out for a nice dinner to celebrate her 13th birthday. And whether she had been wearing jeans or slacks, or a dress or a skirt-- C was still going to be C, still as cute and as bubbly as she could possibly be--- the contents were the same, the packaging really didn't matter.

When I look back on all our years with C, I firmly believe that she has grown closer and closer to us for just that reason-- because we haven't ever wanted her to be anything other than who she is. I find no fault with that child, ever, because she is always true to herself, always fair with everyone else.