Why, it’s my birthday too! I’m 38 years old today, and after this past weekend’s trip, feeling every second of it. It was actually a pretty fun trip — we had a great time visiting everyone, and the kids were great. Unfortunately, no one slept at all. I’m at an age now where getting five hours of broken sleep per night requires at least a week of recovery time.
It’s been a good birthday so far. This morning I got some awesome gifts from the kids (this necklace from this shop on Etsy — thanks to facilitation by Mrs Carl Sagan, a set of silicone muffin cups that I really wanted, and a USB storage thingy so I can make that fifteenth backup of my stuff that I must have or else lose valuable sleep at night). Once the older two went off to school, I took Little Miss Sunshine out shopping and managed to actually complete almost all my Christmas shopping — I only have Sir Monkeypants left now. I just finished making cupcakes with the kids (and ate at least a whole cupcake’s worth of raw batter, yum) and then I made brownies and licked that bowl clean, too.
The brownies are for tonight’s PTA meeting. It’s only my second meeting so I felt I couldn’t skip it with the birthday excuse, but if I have to be there for three hours, dammit, there will be SQUARES. And tea too, maybe. I can’t figure out how to bring tea with me, though, other than to brew up a pot and carry it over, which seems a little dangerous. Hm.
The kids are very excited about the coming of my birthday because it is the official marker in this house of the beginning of Christmas season. My mom always had the rule that there would be NO talk of Christmas in the house until after my birthday, so we’ve introduced the same rule here (kind of as a joke, but also kind of to preserve Sir Monkeypants’ sanity). Gal Smiley is already ready to crack out the Christmas music and wants to hang up her stocking FIRST THING tomorrow. At this rate we should be good and ready for Santa’s arrival by November 25th.
I’m so glad I’m finished most of my shopping because it’s just over a month until Christmas, but there is still tons to do — wrapping, newsletter writing, card addressing, decorating, baking, and the inevitable last minute shopping for people I forgot. It’d be overwhelming if I still had to face the mall, as well.
Anyway, the cupcakes are just about ready to come out of the oven so I better be there so I can eat a warm one. Birthday cupcakes are calorie free!
TurtleHead 
Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday!
I am envious of you because you are finished your shopping. I haven’t even started and I feel tightness in my chest just thinking about it. Normally I am well on my way to being finished by this time each year, but this year I don’t even have a list made.
Enjoy your brownies…oh and pop into the TIm’s drive thru before your meeting and at least bring yourself a cup of tea to the meeting!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Sounds like you’re having a great day.
Happy birthday! I’m so impressed that you’re nealy done your shopping – I haven’t started yet! I wonder whether I can do all my shopping online this year, because I really dread malls this time of year.
I’m glad you had a great birthday!
I’m wondering if you’ve used the silicone baking cups yet. I’ve been eyeing some for quite a while now. Can you use then standalone on a cookie sheet? Or must they be put inside a conventional muffin pan? I’m thinking of making one or two muffins in silicone cups on a sheet in my toaster oven…How non-stick are they?
Rheostatics Fan — I have indeed used the cups, I used them for my birthday cupcakes. The instructions recommended using them standalone on a cookie sheet, which is what I did (I recommend filling them off of the sheet, though, to avoid drips!). I used the same baking time and they turned out great. Once they were finished and iced they were so pretty, too!
They are pretty non-stick in that cleaning them afterwards was a snap. However, it is a little tricky to get the cupcakes out in one piece. You either have to squeeze the cup and push the cupcake out — in which case you can end up with a fair bit of cupcake stuck at the bottom of the cup — or you have to kind of peel back a side and stick your finger down there and “scoop” out the cake, which leaves your finger covered in icing.
I really do like them, though, and I will definitely be using them in the future any time I need to make cupcakes or muffins!