Left: our friends at dinner; above, right: margarita pizza, which we discovered at Sassorosso during my Big Insane Pregnancy Cravefest 2010; below, left: braised rabbit; below, right: happy me

Last Friday was my birthday.  Two weeks ago, the hubby suggested that we go out on a date to celebrate.  Even though I was really excited, I also felt a touch guilty that he was making such a nice effort for me.  The hubby’s birthday is on Christmas Day, and every year for each of the 30-odd years he’s been alive, he gets the shaft when it comes to birthday celebrations.  You would think that I, as devoted wife and superfan of the hubby, would make an effort to change that.  Well, this year, the hubby asked for an IPad and a homemade cake.  I thought he was kidding about the IPad (he wasn’t) and I thought he’d want to share the cake with friends and family (he didn’t).  So basically, I kind of expected him to downplay my birthday this time around, since I’d failed him so spectacularly during his.

Well, it turns out that the hubby one-upped me, big time.  Even though I’d been fine with dining a deux, by the time Friday actually rolled around I found myself kind of wishing that I’d organized a dinner at our house for a small group of people, like I’d done in years past.  I made some feebled attempts at getting a few of our friends together, but I knew it was last-minute, and the hubby seemed committed to having a low-key weekend.  In reality, he’d planned a surprise birthday party and invited a few of our friends here in KL to meet us at the restaurant.  Man, was I ever surprised to see our dear friends waiting for us when we arrived, and oh, was I ever touched that they came.