So, my birthday celebration is finally over. It started with a party on December 1, my real birthday on the 13th, and then a night out on the town with Tom on the 15th. A night out was the big finale and it was really fun!
Tom has accumulated a large amount of points with Sheraton due to his travels to Roanoke. We decided to use some of those points and stay at ALoft in Charlotte’s Epicenter. The Epicenter is a new three story, square, strip mall full of restaurants, bars and activities. The hotel is attached to the Epicenter and is a trendy and modern hotel with a very European feel to it. It was perfect.
The first thing we did when we got to the hotel was climb into bed and take a nap. Tom thought I was kidding about napping, but I was not! I was exhausted. We napped until 6:00, showered and went out to find some dinner. I wanted to eat at a restaurant that wasn’t too upscale, but also didn’t have too many TVs either. We found Black Finn. It was perfect. An all wood bar/restaurant with good seafood and a medium/casual atmosphere. After dinner went went to the bowling alley that is in the Epicenter. We couldn’t bowl because of Christmas parties so we opted to have a drink and a tequila shot (my favorite). I had to bring in 40 with a tequila shot. It was delicious!
We did realize that we are a bit old. There isn’t much going on at 9:00 pm. As I age, I have to adjust my idea of “fun”. Fun is enjoying who you are with, having some laughs, and getting a decent night’s sleep. We did that! Tom and I laughed more than we have in a while. It is amazing how much more we get to talk and laugh when we can finish a sentence and not have our conversation be about the kids or finances. We had a great time together. We even got to sleep in until 7:30am with out anyone pushing us out of bed or telling us to “get up”. It was fabulous.
Tom had to get up and go to church that morning to work the A/V stuff. I had decided to skip church, even though Faith was singing in the service. In the end, mommy guilt got the best of me and I took a taxi to church and saw her sing. She did pretty well, except that she kept staring at the song sheet….pretending that she could read it. She just did what she thought everyone else was doing. Too funny.
That night she also sang at Little Church’s Lovefeast. She sang Morning Star. A song that the children sing each year. It is sort of a rite of passage for kids in the Moravian church. She did it! I am so proud. She is singing it again at the 2:00 service on Christmas Eve. I will definitely get some pictures of that!