Celebrating my Birthday Week

Happy Birthday to me!

So I like to celebrate my birthday for a whole week or more.

 The anticipation, making plans and doing fun things together with friends and my family is how 

I like to Live it UP!

I started off the week watching Christmas movies on the Hallmark channel.  

Cuz everyone knows that the minute Halloween is over, 

it's CHRISTMAS!!!

It is a little sad packing up all our cherished vintage Halloween treasures so I like to listen to my favorite collection of Christmas music while I take down and pack away all my decorations.

 Before I bring out any Christmas stuff I want to give the house a good cleaning.  

One chilly morning, I got my first Starbucks Redcup of the season before a quick shopping spree at Target.  I congratulated myself in resisting the purchase of any half off Halloween candy by splurging on a glorious tartan scarf instead.

I choose a festive shade of nail polish for my birthday manicure.

While at the Clemmons Goodwill I spied a fantastic wood & wicker picnic basket for $3!!!
It was very sturdy despite one of the hinges being busted and I couldn't help but dream about all the picnics the previous owners had taken it on and what I might pack in there to nosh on while traveling on a day trip, maybe to the mountains.

Over in the book section I spied some gorgeous classics, circa 1950's. This nice man saw me picking them out and gave me the ones he found as well, since they all seemed to be from this lady named Gloria's collection according to the book plate & inscriptions.  Ssssshhh...I'm going to give them to Ems for Christmas!

On my actual birthday, I wake to the wafting aroma of freshly brewed coffee, 

and think, Ain't Life Grand?  

My BFF of 14 years, Donna, 

brought decadent Krispy Kreme donuts over to gobble up together.

Then we strolled around my favorite antique store called, Lost in Time, 

looking at all the cool vintage things.

Birthdays are the Best!

Later on Emily and I hit the Starbucks and I got my FREE  birthday reward.

It was warm that day so we got Frappucinos.  

Gingerbread for me and Caramel Brulee for Emily.  

So Yummy!

On the way home we pick up our order at Marco's for my 

Pizza Movie Party Night!

On Friday we did a bit of shopping at the mall 

then met my other BFF, Christi and her daughter at the movies.  

I'm so LUCKY to have two best friends!

I met both my beautiful BFFs through homeschooling our daughters 

and our daughters are best friends as well!  

I've known Christi for at least 10 years and we both LOVE Bill Murray so we wanted to see his new movie, Saint Vincent, which was a really good movie but not as funny as we were thinking it would be.

Emily & I shared a huge bucket of popcorn for the first time in about 3 years since she had her braces removed last month.  And afterwards we go to Carraba's, another one of my favorite restaurants, for dinner and I always seem to order the same thing there, too, Fettucine Weesie.  

It's SO GOOD!

I took this photo at Old Salem Tavern where Donna & I + our girls met for lunch after some Christmas shopping on another beautiful, sunny, crisp fall Saturday.  Of course. I had the chicken pie again with gingerbread for dessert.  It's a tradition!

I got a lot of fun packed into this fantastic Birthday week.

And finally there's this:

I found it while flipping through Instagram 

and it made me giggle.

Anybody else miss Jesse Pinkman, from Breaking Bad?

I still seem to look forward to my birthday every year.  

I feel like it's another year older and wiser.  

Definitely a time to count your blessings and celebrate LIFE.   

Do you like birthdays? 

How do you spend your birthday week?