My Mom's Birthday

We went to the beach this past weekend to celebrate my mom's birthday.

Dinner Friday night at 30A. The waiters love to get the arial shots, but we got tickled because Curran looked right up there with the rest of us!

My brother, Walter, was planning on coming for Christmas next week, but he decided to fly in from California early to surprise my mom for her birthday. In typical fashion, he missed his early morning flight out of LA so he didn't make it in time for her birthday dinner, but he got in around 11 that night. It has been years since our whole family has been at the beach together, so it was a nice surprise for my mom. And it was only my brother's 3rd time to see Curran, so I enjoyed watching them interact. Walt always comes bearing gifts for her, too, which is so sweet. Walter calls Curran "Margo" and gets a big kick out of it. (In case you didn't know, her first name is Margaret and I briefly mentioned the idea of calling her Margo, halfway kidding, halfway not. But John said all he could think of was Christmas Vacation-- "Why is the carpet all wet, Todd? I don't know, Margo!" so that got vetoed quickly!) When we were out walking one night, we passed by a toy store. Walter got little Margo a Zhu Zhu pet. Apparently they are the hot Christmas item this year. We kind of gave him a hard time about buying it with the recall scare, but of course when we got home and Curran saw that thing zooming around she laughed hysterically, so it was a hit.

This is Walter in my grandmother's rhinestone cowboy hat that he found in one of the closets. Gran Gran had eccentric tastes, and Walt seems to have inherited that from her.

The weather was cold and rainy so we just did a lot of sitting around by the fire. One thing we did not do a lot of is sleeping. Curran decided that she did not like sleeping and woke up screaming constantly during the night on Saturday. She did better Sunday night once we got home but not much. I don't know what is going on with her. It couldn't possibly be the fact that she has spent no more than 4 nights in a row in her own bed in the last month because we have been going out of town so much. I'm glad we are staying in town this weekend, that is fo' sho'.