Jarrod's Birthday Celebration!

 Jarrod turned 30 last Friday. Having a birthday so close to Christmas has always been a challenge for Jarrod. I do everything I can to make things special for him - My birthday get a whole week, he deserves that as well! But finding time to celebrate, sleep in, relax, and enjoy time together in December is definitely a challenge. Add in preparing for baby and Jarrod's birthday has not been the most important date on my calendar.

But I decided to do something very special and try to make his day wonderful. First, I tried to plan a surprise party. Failure. Second, I tried to plan to take him to the Meyerson for a concert he wanted to he. He tried to plan the whole thing himself before I told him to back off! So tickets I purchased and dinner plans I made for the Wednesday before his birthday.

Please excuse the poor quality of photos - I left my DSLR at home and only have a camera phone... 

Our evening started at Craft Dallas, a restaurant Jarrod's been dying to try. It's a Tom Colicchio restaurant and we were really interested to see if Tom's restaurant would live up to our standards. We love watching him on TV and were pretty confident that we wouldn't be disappointed.

The meal was delicious. It started with braised pork belly. Seriously, nothing better than that for my pork-loving husband!

Before our main dishes arrived, we got this small smoked fish bite. In New Orleans we'd call that Lagniappe. :-)

Jarrod got the short ribs and mixed mushrooms. I got the salmon and puree of yukon gold potatoes. The meat was tender, just sweet enough, and made my husband very happy. The mushrooms were cooked to perfection. The salmon was delicious and the skin was crispy - excellent! The potatoes were the best mashed potatoes I've ever had and I'm pretty sure they had clarified butter on them. YUM...

We didn't have time for dessert (sadly!) because we were off to a Christmas concert! We hopped in the car and drove a few blocks to the Meyerson. (It was pouring rain and we had to cross a highway otherwise you know I would have insisted that we walk!)

After dinner, we went to the beautiful Meyerson for a Christmas concert. I love the Meyerson - it's gorgeous and makes me feel very cultured. The music was glorious.

Although it was still a few days from Jarrod's actual birthday, I decided to give him his birthday present. He took Thursday off from work and always has Fridays off (because he works on Sundays, as well as some Saturdays...) I thought he'd enjoy knowing he had a torch and could be searching for yummy recipes!

After quiet a bit of researching, I found this torch and purchased it for Jarrod. When he opened it he was like a child on Christmas morning. He was so excited! I thought he'd know what I was getting, but he was completely surprised, which really made my day. He's already tested it and I'm sure will have lots of recipes to share with you using the torch.

The Thursday before Jarrod's birthday we went up to his parent's house and celebrated with the family. It was great to run around with everyone, see the nephews, and celebrate Jarrod.

On Jarrod's actual birthday I decided to take a mental health day from work. We'd been going strong for several weeks of late nights, busy schedules, and not a lot of sleep or rest. We decided we both needed some time off to rest. We slept in, rested, went grocery shopping, ran a few errands, and basically just sat around the house all day. It was glorious! That evening we went to a Christmas party with some friends and it was a wonderful way to celebrate! It was the perfect "Jarrod Day." A lot of resting, a little bit of getting things done, and a little bit of partying. :-)