Birthdays Bring Our Family Together

Life is busy. I'm applying for jobs, juggling multiple projects (if only a few of them paid!), trying to squeeze some writing in, dealing with car repairs, and trying to keep from falling too far behind on housework. (I'm very bad at meeting that last goal. Do you think this might have anything to do with the fact that it's the last thing on my list?) On top of that, today was my youngest stepson's birthday. He is now seventeen.

We had a wonderful family get-together, with all our sons hanging out and talking computer games and such like. Franz' choices for dinner were Ten Thousand Golden Dragons of Happiness Mushroom Soup (which is what our family now calls Karl's attempt at a vegetarian bouillabaisse: three kinds of mushrooms, tofu, leeks, several different types of sea vegetables, tomato, saffron, grated orange peel, onion, and garlic), souffle, asparagus with hollandaise, fresh baked bread (we cheated by baking pre-made dough this time), and for desert a gingerbread and orange marmalade trifle.

( Just a trifle )