Dinner with the fam - Part 2...and other things...

No visit to Columbia would be complete with out a trip to Huhot's, especially after they were so nice to Flat Jason on Real Jason's birthday. We ate lunch there before heading to see the three-hour epic Australia, which Jason and I both enjoyed.

Later, Jason's parents, Tom and Ann, came over to the house to visit and exchange Christmas gifts. We gave Ann the teapot that we'd made recently. See how beautiful Jason's obsessiveness is?

I suggested that Jason put on his Santa hat to hand out presents and everyone insisted that if Jason had his on, I had to wear mine, too. Thanks for the gifts, Tom and Ann!

Our small party continued at G&D's Steakhouse where we feasted on...what else?....steak.

After dinner, Jason and I went downtown for the Living Windows display. I've lived in Columbia for five years and never made it to this fun event. Many of the shops in the District design holiday-themed window displays that include people doing things. My favorite was at Poppy, the art gallery. I was drawn by "Santa Baby" blaring from the open shop door. Two girl nurses were dancing and singing in a window on one side of the door and a boy playing baby Santa on the other side. All the shops on Broadway were open later and we visited several. We even stopped in to get cookies from the new Hot Box Cookies. If you haven't tried it, you should! It's a college venture by a group of friends, and it looks like they're going to be pretty successful.

When we got home from our busy day, Jason tore another link off the paper chain. Now the chain is too short to be hooked in the middle. Hooray! Another Friday down, 23 to go.

Flat Jason celebrates Real Jason's Birthday

Sunday, Nov. 2, was Jason's 26th birthday. Flat Jason celebrated by staying busy. After church, we went with AshLee and JR to Shryocks' Corn Maze. None of us had ever been to a corn maze before so we didn't really know what to expect, but it's just like how it sounds: people wandering around a big cornfield.

This year's theme was Race for the White House - oh the elections! Will we never be rid of them? Shryock's made the maze more interesting by adding checkpoints with trivia questions that we had to find and answer. We started the maze by just choosing a path, left or right, but after unsuccessfully locating checkpoints, JR developed a systematic approach to the maze. We thoroughly covered the maze, located all of the checkpoints and turned in our sheet in good time. Masterful job! It's a good thing, too, because someone (I'm not naming names) on the team was getting a little hot and tired of the game.

After the maze, Flat Jason and I went out to eat birthday dinner at Huhot Mongolian Grill. We had a coupon for free birthday dessert, but our lovely waitress Sydney told her manager Jim that we were there and he said that Huhot would pick up the tab. What an incredible gift! Then a Marine came over with some money. "Here," he said. "When he gets home, take him out and buy him a beer." Another lady also came over to say thank you for Jason's service. On the verge of tears, I thanked everyone as best I could. I hope they realized how much their kindness and generosity meant to me. I felt incredibly blessed.

We met the Sunday evening crew for some birthday bowling goodness around 9 o'clock. I beat Brian both times with scores of 101 and 90. He'll say he was injured if you ask him, but the point is I beat him twice. It was the shoes...and Jason's birthday magic.

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Real Jason didn't have as much fun on his birthday. He actually had to go into the office for a little bit, but it was ok because he had decorations to remind him how special he is! Real Jason also wants to tell everyone thank you for the birthday cards and packages.