Celebrate Good Times, C'mon!

So, I turned 30 yesterday.

And it was a great day. Nothing big, nothing crazy, just good all around. Hunt asked me the night before how I had celebrated the beginning of other decades and it made me go down memory lane.

I was born in Wilmington, DE in the middle of a snow storm and my poor mother endured 30+ hours of labor with an anesthesiologist who was delayed because of the massive amounts of snow. My father then proceeded to name me while my mother was still recovering from my birth, completely surprising her with his choice of names. His reasoning that the discussed "Alyssa" was made up and that "Melissa" was a real name and therefore a better choice.

When I was 10 my family had just moved to a suburb of Chicago and we were living in a great townhouse while our house was being built. I distinctly remember the four of us going to dinner and then going to see Disney's The Little Mermaid. After that day I pretty much wore out my tape of the movie soundtrack and re-enacted Ariel's ocean scene of singing on the rocks many, many times.

When I turned 20 I was in Clemson living on the 8th floor of Manning hall - otherwise known as the sorority hall. My parents were still living in Pennsylvania so we couldn't be together, but my Grandmommy and Papa were traveling home from Myrtle Beach back to Texas and stopped on the way to take me to dinner. We went to Seasons by the Lake and celebrated the start of my 20's.

And 30 started out like every birthday with mom calling me at 7:35am to sing Happy Birthday since that was the time that I came into the world. One of the many highlights of the day was a Buckhead Church staff meeting at work. We had to kill time waiting for a special guest to arrive and since we were in one of the children's worship areas, it was decided to have staff karaoke. As a result, the girl who grew up belting out show tunes and singing in musicals got to sing "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables with a mic, in front of a captive audience, in full voice. All I can say is that God is extravagant in his blessings. While I realize that sounds like a nightmare to some of you, it was awesomely fun for me. Of course, my coworkers might tell you it was a nightmare for them... My sweet friend Tammy actually wrote an ode to me, an ODE! I then got treated to a fabulous lunch with precious work friends and later iChatted with Hunt since he wasn't able to get to the hospital and was stuck inside due to a 2nd blizzard hitting DC in one week. I came home from work to find an overnighted letter from Hunt that had evidently made it out of DC on the last plane of the day. My sweet brother and sis-in-law arranged for me to have a manicure at a spa just down the street - what a great idea for a long-distance gift! To cap off the wonderful day of thirties-embarking, Mom and Dad took me to dinner at Pasta de Pulcinella in midtown. Magnifico!

All-in-all, I couldn't have scripted a better, more fun day...unless Hunt could have been here in person. That would have made it perfect.

I am thankful for every day. They are precious. And the blessings of family, friends, love and a Savior makes these days priceless.