One year of Stardust
We threw a party for Stardust's first birthday. What a palaver it was! Not the planning, the cooking or the decorating, but having to convince my own parents that we could throw a party without having to spend a fortune. 
I refused to buy a birthday cake, insisting that I could carve and decorate it myself. The food would all be cooked with the help of my numerous willing aunties, all of whom are excellent chefs. This suggestion was met with a wail of protests from Stardust's indignant (indulgent?) grandparents. I am stilled puzzled about this reaction - after all, when I was little, they threw parties on a tight budget as well. The whole week preceding the birthday party, the two of them conspired with Stardust against me. "Poor boy!" they moaned, rattling their chains, "No birthday cake for you!".
Despite the weeping and gnashing of teeth, I still managed to get the cake done, waking up at 5am on the morning of the party to decorate it with fresh cream and icing. I'm not a very good pastry chef, so the cake had a very wonky do-it-yourself look to it, but it was bright, festive, birthday-looking and smelled cheerfully of vanilla and lemons, which was the main idea.
The party was a success. It was crowded, noisy and rowdy. There were babies everywhere. The adults played pass-the-parcel with Stardust who was cossetted and coddled within an inch of his life.
And it was cheap - which means now we can afford to take Stardust to visit his grandparents in the UK this year - YAY!
I refused to buy a birthday cake, insisting that I could carve and decorate it myself. The food would all be cooked with the help of my numerous willing aunties, all of whom are excellent chefs. This suggestion was met with a wail of protests from Stardust's indignant (indulgent?) grandparents. I am stilled puzzled about this reaction - after all, when I was little, they threw parties on a tight budget as well. The whole week preceding the birthday party, the two of them conspired with Stardust against me. "Poor boy!" they moaned, rattling their chains, "No birthday cake for you!".
Despite the weeping and gnashing of teeth, I still managed to get the cake done, waking up at 5am on the morning of the party to decorate it with fresh cream and icing. I'm not a very good pastry chef, so the cake had a very wonky do-it-yourself look to it, but it was bright, festive, birthday-looking and smelled cheerfully of vanilla and lemons, which was the main idea.
The party was a success. It was crowded, noisy and rowdy. There were babies everywhere. The adults played pass-the-parcel with Stardust who was cossetted and coddled within an inch of his life.
And it was cheap - which means now we can afford to take Stardust to visit his grandparents in the UK this year - YAY!
posted by tscd at 10:53 am
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