Nelson Sisters Celebrate the Older One

Yes siree, it's now her turn to get the theme treatment!  Along with a bouquet of flowers
brought right to her door.  (Those flowers had to bring a bit of cheer inside as outside it was a horrible, rainy, cold mess.)  Soon these two sisters would be drenched...see visual of our drippy selves.

The original celebration plan included a train ride to the city to
go to a restaurant that would go along with the 2017 birthday
theme.  That was scrapped to use car transportation only. Also
Baby Anderson was soon to arrive and the location had to be close
by.  We called this the new Plan B.

Let's cut to the chase: what is the theme for this year? I know you want to know. 
Simply put, it's Simple Joys. Plan A was to go to Joy's Noodles & Rice. It's a Thai
restaurant on Broadway.  But with the nasty weather and a need to find a related-to-theme restaurant,
close by I was stumped.  I decided to instead think of a restaurant that would bring joy to mind, and that became a no-brainer:  Tre Kronor on Foster Avenue.  We have shared so many happy occasions there: graduations, Christmas, family gatherings.  The food is always great and the ambience is cozy and comfortable.  Simple. We would have breakfast there.

And her cake would be an oozy, gooey, warm cinnamon roll.  And look!  With those swags hanging
from the ceiling, doesn't it already look like a party in progress? No matter that the rain was building up to a crescendo of wetness! Visual below.

We enjoyed a lovely meal and the restaurant wasn't too crowded. The gift basket was presented
right there and then.

Nothing like red and aqua colors to get the idea of joy across!  As well as pom poms, red and white striped string and funky tags on each gift.  Each one was given as a way of appreciating the simple things in life like mornings, sunsets, chocolate, words, etc.  Another visual, yes?

This is what the front of the tags look like and the numbers indicate the order in which the gifts
should be opened.  The tags are backed with old book pages cut to size.  Note:  oops on #9. Twice.
I may or may not have been on pain meds following hand surgery when I crafted the tags.

The red word strips have the Simple Joys to be celebrated. I used a Dymo device for this.
Examples of the gifts included:  Singing for this ceramic bird that can be hung from a tree branch in the garden:

Sunsets:

A photo book made from our recent Florida trip.

 

 

                                         

And here's a look at the whole collection unwrapped.

There's a lot to be said about celebrating the Simple Joys in everyday life.  There's a lot to be said about taking time to celebrate the advancement of years.  There's a lot that can be said about shared memories throughout the course of decades.  There's a lot that can be said about the joys of having siblings!

Plan B also included going to a movie afterwards. A movie in which a young woman has no siblings,
has been brought up by her father who loves to make clocks, is happiest when reading books, has no time for the brawny-but-no-brains buffoon, and ends up befriending a Beast who lives in an enchanted castle.  There's joy to be found in this place, too.