My First 29th Birthday
by Rebecca on 2008-01-20
In Relief Society, we usually have a minute or two for people to share happy news with the others. One of the sisters shared her happy moment by saying, “I turned 29 this week… for the first time!” And the sisters who laughed at her little joke were probably turning 29 for the 17th or so time. Hence, the title of this post, since I also turned 29 yesterday.
My birthday party was pretty low-key, but it was still fun to get everyone together to celebrate. Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandmother, Aunt Kay, and Mark and the boys came over to our apartment to eat yummy Chinese food and cake and to watch me open my presents. John, in particular, was in his element, since he wasnʼt ever quite sure whether it was his birthday (which is in August) or mine. I think he finally figured out that it was my birthday when he realized that everyone was singing “Happy Birthday, dear Rebecca” and not “dear John.”
We ordered Chinese food from our favorite Chinese place, Super China. (Lest you are tempted to keep reading without checking out their website, Iʼm going to encourage you to see this, since itʼs easily one of my favorite websites of all time. Everything you need to know about the experience of dining at Super China can be summed up by their website.) It was only fitting that we eat there, since itʼs turning into a birthday tradition for William and me to have Super China take out on my birthday. And then we opened presents and ate cake and ice cream. It was good cake, and I got fun presents — a cushy new mattress pad; new socks to replace my old hole-y ones; a bracelet that I think Aunt Kay made; and new DVDs of Order of the Phoenix, Clue, and Season One of The Simpsons.
In the evening, we went to our stake play, which was called Joseph Smith — Lover of the Cause of Christ. I admit that I was skeptical of the quality of this play because (a) it was a stake production and (b) it had the word “lover” in the title, which I found quite odd. But we went because it seemed the appropriate thing to do. And it was amazing! The play was so, so good.
The script, which was written by a woman in our stake for the express purpose of putting on a stake play, is based on journal entries from different people who knew Joseph Smith. The stories that were told in the play were taken from the journals of ordinary church members who had chance encounters with Joseph Smith — nearly all of the characters and their stories were unfamiliar to me. The man who played Joseph was wonderful, and I was impressed with how he was able to portray Joseph as both a prophet and as a man of the people. The last act was particularly powerful, since the characters told their respective stories interspersed with the four verses of Praise to the Man. It was definitely a testimony-strengthening experience for both of us, and Iʼm so glad that we were able to attend.
As William told me today, my birthday isnʼt over until I run out of cake, so Iʼm guessing that Iʼll be able to bask in it for at least one more day. Hooray!