Quarter-century surprises

Happy birthday to my wonderful husband! I felt like turning 25 was a big moment in my life, so after telling Dan he wasn't getting a surprise party like he threw for me, I did it anyway!

To set the scene, I wanted to make Dan's mom's carrot cake for him for his birthday. Got the recipe, and thought I would take it up a notch (me being the overachiever that I am) and make it a layer cake instead of a sheet cake. I reached too high, however, and didn't grease the layer pans. Therefore half of my layers stayed in the pan and half came out. Dan wasn't upset at all and said we should just salvage what we could of the layers, slap some frosting on and call it good. I continued to use the rest of the carrot cake batter in cupcake form, and they turned out nicely. I also made an orange sheet cake with cream cheese frosting (since I knew 15-20 people were coming to dinner!). Dan chocked it up to me being a perfectionist and was upset that I made so much dessert! I was able to keep my mouth shut to save the surprise.

It wasn't a true surprise party, but I secretly invited a bunch of his friends to join us for dinner and we had such a great turnout! Even after the restaurant gave away our reservation and we had to wait an extra 45 minutes, we all had a great time. He was thrilled when he realized that the mob of college students walking into the restaurant were his classmates, and they were here to see him for his birthday.

The next best surprise was that I got him tickets to see James Taylor and Ben Taylor in concert in March - on the seventh row! James Taylor is one of his all-time favorite artists and he's never seen him in concert, so we're both excited to see the show.

Here's to turning 25, Dan, may it be the best year yet. Cheers!