My granddaughter's birthday is very close to Christmas, and all of us, her close family members, are usually really busy that time of year. We've always talked about giving her a half-birthday, but it's never happened (except when she was six months old).
Our way of celebrating a birthday is to have a private dinner at home, with the birthday person choosing every part of the dinner. She has chosen, no surprise to us, a sushi feast. And for dessert, she's chosen her dad's family-famous cinnamon cake, created originally by her late paternal grandmother.
Making sushi might seem like a rather simple task, but not at our houses. We go all out and add just as many goodies as a nori sheet can hold without exploding, or being too large to get into our mouths. So we had to start at least an hour and a half ahead of time because veggies had to be cut just so and asparagus had to be panko-breaded, tempura shrimp cooked (yes, they're insects of the sea, so I have no problem eating them. I make my own vegetarian rules! And I'm comfortable with insects, not that I've eaten any intentionally, except for these specific shrimp).
For decorations, we had a "Happy ... " banner, and balloons, some full, some half-full. The cake had 16 tall candles and 1 "half-candle." Oh, and I stumbled through "Happy Birthday," skipping every other syllable."
It was silly, I know, but everyone had a very nice time, and the dinner and dessert were excellent.
Oh, one roll was so filled that after it was cut, a few of the pieces did "explode."
Sorry, I didn't know how to blur her face, so I scribbled on it in edit. Here's her simple-looking but delicious cake with the candles.
And here's one way-overloaded sushi in progress: (there's not quite enough rice in the photo. I added more before I rolled it.) No shrimp in this one, just carrot, cream cheese, avocado, asparagus, cucumber, and I can't tell what else. We had run out of daikon, and it can't be bought locally, so that was disappointing.
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