Birthday Goodies

This post is long overdue. I was working hard around my birthday so the photos never got posted. Now it's been over a month and I am finally sharing my gifts with you. If any of you care to know, my birthday was on February 15th.

From my Mom and Stepdad, I got some gift certificates to a local restaurant. I didn't take photos of them but I will make to photograph the actual dinner.

From my sister, I got this wonderful chocolate bar. It is from the company Chocomize, http://www.chocomize.com/. To quote their website, "Choose from over 80 types of fruits, nuts, herbs and candies to create the perfect custom chocolate bar just for you! Our Belgian Chocolate bars are handmade to order with only the finest ingredients! More than 10 billion flavour combinations allow you to create the perfect bar for you or your loved ones! It's easy, fun and simply delicious!" Let me tell you, this chocolate is divine! My sister ordered mine with Mini Chipotles, 23 Karat Gold Flakes and an edible Happy Birthday Plaque.



From my husband and kids, I got 32 Cadbury Creme Eggs and a digital picture keychain.

If you most know, I got an egg for every year old I am. Yes, I turned 32. This was actually the perfect gift. I am notorious for hording Cadbury eggs. I freeze them and then ration them out over the year so I can have Cadbury eggs all summer, fall and winter long.



The keychain has a home on my purse and is fully loaded. If you run into me out and about, I can show you photos of the family, the pets including hens and ducks as well of silly photos of me and my best friends.



From our good friends, Jarid and Steph, I got a couple of books and a movie from my Amazon.com wishlist.

Roma by Steven Saylor is a historical fiction. It follows the twists and turns of two of the founding families of Rome. Each chapter is another period of time, with one or both of the families descendants having the main character roles. The book covers the span of five centuries and ends with the time of Augustus Caeser. The great thing about Roma is that Steven Saylor is in addition to a fictional author a Roman historian. Much of the book is based on his historical knowledge of ancient Rome.

Let the Right One In by John Lindqvist is a vampire novel but it is no Twilight. It isn't even akin to Bram Stoker's Dracula. This is more psychological on many levels. The story follows Oskar, a bullied boy, and Eli, his savior of sorts. It is set in Stockholm, so some of the references are European but it is a very engrossing read. The book and movie both contain strong, mature content. There are varying degrees of violence and sexual undertones.

If you do decide to give Let the Right One In, here are my suggestions. Read the book first. The movie stays close to the book's storyline but some of the backdrop information is left out leaving you guessing. I watched the film first but it made much more sense after I read the book. My other suggestion is to try watching it in Swedish with English subtitles. The dubbed over English voices just don't fit the characters as well as the original Swedish language does. This is one of those movies where you truly are so engrossed you forget you are reading the subtitles rather than hearing it in English.



I hope you enjoyed the reviews of my birthday goodies. I am in no way affiliated with any of the companies or products mentioned however I willing endorse all of them.

On a side note, Happy Vernal Equinox. It is officially the first full day of Spring in the northern hemisphere. We did get a bit of snow yesterday but nothing stuck. Today has been beautiful!

~Jessica~