It's been entirely too long.

There's really no excuse for not updating sooner, but then, that's how it goes. Christmas and my birthday have come and gone (I'm officially in my late twenties at 26), and here I am.

My birthday weekend was very, very nice. Two years ago, Scott planned a birthday weekend in NYC and it was incredible -- my first time to New York, period. This time, we had a Richmond weekend. We went out to dinner at a posh restaurant downtown with his brothers and their wives, and his sister in law's brother (who shares my birthday!) and his wife. It was awesome. We ordered good food and drank wine. My parents came down for a day, and we relaxed at our apartment with them. We went to a local diner just down the road, which was cool. Scott ordered a strawberry cake from a local bakery, and that was my cake. I absolutely love strawberries.

Anyway, the biggest surprise -- Sunday morning. I woke up, expecting pancakes or something. While we were getting ready to go out to a diner, I noticed that Scott was wearing clothes that he normally wore for work. I was confused. A diner breakfast means a hoodie or tshirt, not a crisp button up shirt. Scott couldn't keep it a surprise any longer -- we were going to brunch at the Jefferson hotel. The Jefferson is this historic hotel downtown (presidents have stayed there) that puts on Sunday brunches. Fancy schmancy brunches, no less. Instead of jeans, as I had planned, I ended up wearing a black sheath dress with a blue cardigan and shiny red flats.

The brunch was very fancy, indeed. It turns out that nearly everyone had dressed up, including this older man sitting at the table next to ours, wearing a white suit. We drank orange juice and champagne and filled up on breakfast and lunch. The seafood spread was pretty amazing. Near the end of the meal, I heard the happy birthday song being played on the piano, Charlie Brown style. I thought that alone was cool, never mind that waiters began carrying out little dishes of birthday desserts for those who had birthdays. Somehow, the waiter knew to put the dish on my side of the table. It was a little scoop of this chocolate mold around cheesecake, with a candy banner that read "happy birthday". Very nice.

By that point, I had already eaten a few small slivers of cake from the dessert table, but no matter -- you're allowed to eat tons of sweets on your birthday! Right?

After brunch, and wandering around the hotel, we went to Barnes and Noble so that I could pick out a few books and use my Christmas gift card. It was pretty perfect.