So, the boy turned 14 this year. Lots of new stuff happening, lots of changes, most of it very good. 🙂 For one, he is old enough now for us to confidently leave him in charge while we go to the movies in the evening. That has been really nice. We have waited a long time for that. 🙂 Also, he is now Chris’ official home teaching partner, and they have fun visiting their families every month. Nick loves playing with the cute little kids and it’s a good chance for he and Chris to do something special together.
Unfortunately his birthday this year fell on a Monday. This year in school, Monday is his long day. He leaves at 7 am and doesn’t get back home until 7 pm. Not a whole lot of time left for celebrating. So I talked to him beforehand about we should do, and we decided to do special food on Sunday, when he would be home to enjoy it, and presents and cake on his actual birthday.
His birthday meal request? French onion soup. I have never made it before. I have only eaten it a couple of times, but it is always delicious, so I was excited to try. I looked up several recipes and found one that I thought would be tasty, and that I could also follow all the instructions for. It required a trip to the local butcher for some bones to make the beef broth. Chris can’t eat the pre-made kind, the celery in it will kill him. 🙁 He sold me a slab of stew meat, and then gave me the bones I actually asked for, for free. I am not sure if I didn’t make it clear enough what I wanted, or if he just wanted to sell me the expensive meat. haha Also, I had to buy a bottle of red wine, and there was some slight confusion on my part which kind was the right one to buy. In the end I went for the lower end of middle, price-wise, and just hoped that it wouldn’t ruin the soup.
Funny aside, the week before we had gone to Germany to do our big grocery shopping, and I had bought a bottle of vodka to make my own vanilla extract. You can’t get it here, and although the vanilla sugar packets work well, I wanted to have some liquid extract to try. The kids were very concerned that I was buying so much alcohol and I had to reassure them that it would be alright. 🙂
The smile tells the whole story. Nick LOVED the soup, and I will definitely have to make it again. It is really fun to cook for him, since he has a very adventurous palate, but you have to get the amount just right, since he hates leftovers and refuses to eat to them. Can’t have everything too perfect, I guess.
Monday night, once he finally got home and had a quick dinner, it was time for presents and cake.
The kids had been waiting all day for him to open those enticing packages. 
Especially Alexandra, who had made him a little book filled with original drawings. His reaction was just what she was hoping for. 🙂
One of the cute little things Nick does is close his eyes when opening presents. He loves the surprise of finding out what is inside as much, or more, than he does the actual gift itself. So he likes to keep the suspense going for as long as possible, and keeps his eyes closed until the wrapping is completely off.
When Oma was here she asked what she could send for him, and I told her he had been talking a lot about a certain game that he played a few times and really liked. I looked for it here, but it was about 3 times the price as in the States, so she got it for him.
It has been played on a continuous basis ever since. Whenever I hear lots of hysterical laughter coming from the boys’ room, I know Life is being played. It cracks them up that you can be a mechanic and live in a mansion, for example. And they like to see how many kids they can fill their car up with. 🙂
That’s a lot of candles, kid. So glad you are here to brighten our lives.