Delightful Sunday

Beautiful snowy day. Little feather snowflakes drifting lazily, dancing in the air, relieved as I was that the bitter cold had lifted. Hazy pink sunset, seemed like the atmosphere was frosted glass.

Family warmth and wit. I am opening up a little bit.

[These passions, however strong, are so temporary. The flame ignites, and slowly cools down, until it's only smoldering embers - unless it's fed well.]

My good granny bought candles for my mom's cake, candles that were magic - somehow, if you lit one, the others would light by themselves, like a dominoes effect. However, since my mom's cake had quite a lot of candles on it, there was a quick, unexpected whoosh of flame, and everyone stepped back, caught wide-eyed in a moment of surprise, until the flame settled it's unease and dispersed itself kindly amongst the candles. After a brief moment of silence, after the many dramatic intakes of oxygen, we all deflated and began to laugh. The jokes started, and were followed by a deafening, off-key 'happy birthday', which is the tradition of our family.

My granny and auntie pat sang nicely,
My grandpa pretended to sing,
Connor was insecure about singing and did it worriedly,
Cara and Jenna sang sweetly off-key,
Craig managed to boldly carry the tune,
My dad and I sang as loud as we could, as awful as we could, and
My mom laughed, blushed deeply, and couldn't wait for it to be over.

Three candles withstood the mouthwind storm - ha ha! THREE boyfriends!

And my mom cut the cake, giving the pieces to those who correctly answered her trivia questions:

"Where do I want to go in August?"

"Cayman Islands!"

"Calgary!"

"England! France! Germany! Poland!"

After most of the cake had been dispersed, and my grandpa still lacked a piece, he said with a cat-grin, "I'm a little slow!"

My granny also didn't have a piece, but they were waiting for everyone else, kindly saving themselves for last.

The cake was another triumph for my good granny.

After stuffing our faces like we hadn't ate a big lunch two hours ago, the adults began a game of Kaiser, and the kids and I retired to the nintendo lab, intent on settling the score on an intense Smash Bros. battle. Connor was annihilating us as usual, never missing a moment to brag how his score was better than all of ours combined. Though I fought valiantly with Pikachu, I could not hold a cake-full of flaming candles to Connor's skill.

Later, I was tragically defeated by both my mom and dad at crib. (But I won the sudoku-puzzle race!)

I love the family. They light me up and I am full of enthusiasm and fun. The environment created by them is the most pleasant I've ever known, and I am lucky to have been born into their love.

Maybe I should try out, if for the sole reason of getting a free ticket to visit Jason in Toronto.