Every time you come to this space, you witness me sharing a bit of my life, my heart and hopefully some good food. But what you don’t see is my husband helping me edit each post – taking out the many commas that I haphazardly scatter throughout each post and being a second pair of eyes to help me decide if my ramblings make sense outside my own head. He eats every recipe, often multiple times until I deem it ready to share. Even more, he works incredibly hard every day so that I can pursue my passion here and spend more time our kids.

Dear Christopher,

All too often our days become bogged down in the minutiae of daily chores, and routines that can rob us from seeing the beauty right in front of us. Birthdays are always a good reminder to celebrate the life that the person has shared with those around them. I remember being drawn to your passion and excitement for life when we met, over ten years ago. While life and hardship have abounded, I still see that passion every time you get excited about something or whenever we head for a mountain getaway. It energizes me and reminds me just how beautiful and sweet life is.

Thankfully your jokes have improved significantly since we’ve met, although the very first joke you told me still bring me to tears from laughing so hard. Your willingness to just laugh with me when things go terribly wrong, is one of my favorite things about you.

Opening my inbox always feels as if I am getting a small little gift with the many articles you forward on to me thinking I might enjoy them. Your passion for always gaining knowledge and pushing yourself past your comfort zone reminds me to never stay complacent. Your grit and tenacity inspires me to never give up and always push harder.

Sharing my life with you has been one of the greatest privileges but watching you parent our children has often transformed that privilege into utter delight. I love watching the way you encourage J to think through complex problems and spend hours building legos with him. Even after a long day, your willingness to spend an extra fifteen minutes laying in bed, discussing the intricate details of  building a catapult communicates so much care for him.

When your little girl runs in and asks you to dance with her, I’ve never heard you tell her, “no.” You drop what your doing, get up and dance (even though we both know that may not be your strong suit . A smile creeps across my faces every time I hear you tell her she is beautiful, knowing that she’ll carry that with her. Watching her face as you read through the large stacks of books she gathers up or while you play “Math Dragon” and “Spelling Bear”  with her, you would think she won the lottery.

Your steady and tender hand have pulled me through some of the toughest years of my life. Your support and unwavering love are reminders that you are always in my corner.

Thank you for giving so much of yourself to us. Hopefully today we can return a little of that love with some homemade cake and good food for all of the life you poured into us. Happy Birthday, Love.

Chris is a classic man in many senses. An old fashioned happens to be his favorite cocktail right now. He is, admittedly, the better mixologist of the two of us. Below is his recipe for a perfect muddled, not too sweet, old fashioned.

Old Fashioned

3/4 teaspoon of granulated sugar

splash of club soda or sparkling water

2 dashes of bitters (homemade Angostura)

2 orange wedges (one muddled; one for garnish)

2 maraschino cherries (one muddled; one for garnish)

2 ounces of bourbon

a few cubes of ice

Place sugar in the bottom of a tall mixing glass. Add a splash of club soda, a couple dashes of bitters, orange wedge and cherry. Muddle into a paste with a muddler or the back or a spoon. Pour in the bourbon. Add a few ice cubes and stir. Strain into a clean glass. Garnish with an additional cherry and orange wedge.