Today is for...

celebrating my oldest son's birthday. He's 17! The birthday person always gets to choose where he/she would like to eat dinner. He chose a Japanese restaurant where he can have sushi! He recently made the decision to be a vegetarian, following in the footsteps of his younger brother who made that choice in June 2007. My hubby and I were talking last night that it is so interesting to see how our children grow up. We would have never imagined our son would be asking for sushi for his 17th birthday dinner or be playing a ukulele. That's his latest musical instrument acquisition. I gave him the option of staying home from school today on his birthday. I figured since he is a senior and I've never given him this choice in all these years, I'd offer it to him. He declined and left at 6:45 a.m. for this "zero period" AP Calculus class. For his birthday, we got him the new square iPod last month as an early gift. So today he gets a nice card, a homemade cake, and his dinner out. He received some cards in the mail earlier this week so he'll open those too. I know this is a crazy photo but it's a fun look he gave me on a family camping trip this past June. Isn't he a handsome guy?

As for me and the rest of the day...no going to work today! Our teachers' union negotiated that we have this day off school and we worked a staff development day in August in exchange. It is so nice for the people who travel away from home for this holiday. And it's so nice to just have a "5 day weekend" for all of us. I slept in till almost 9 a.m. I'm enjoying a cup of coffee or two or three and making my "to do" list. First off will be baking that chocolate cake. My hubby is going to the market for all the necessities for holiday cooking/baking and I hope to run out to use a few coupons at the craft stores before the end of the day. I've got some books on hold at the library I hope to pick up as well. I'm going to finish knitting that lap afghan for my sister-in-law's birthday. I'm going to call a couple of girlfriends who have been on my mind. And there is always homework to do for my master's program class. I'm going to try very hard to finish all the assignments today that are due by Sunday so I won't have that hanging over my head.

I cannot believe that Thanksgiving is tomorrow. The holidays really seem to have snuck up on me. My stepdaughter and granddaughter are coming back tomorrow for the holiday weekend. We are hoping to do a family photo shoot at a local park with all of us. Hubby will set the camera's timer and use the tripod. We'll see how it works. I'm excited to have some new photos of my family!