A Sweet Birthday

Today is my birthday. A bit out of the ordinary, so I must start with a disclaimer. I'm jetlagging at the moment and my head is starting to swirl around a bit. You know that feeling. Forgive me if I don't make any sense. Self-indulgent, but let me tell you about my special day. Really, it's an entire special week, but I want to capture the last 24 hours. The sights, the smells, the emotions.

Sam and I spent the day with Sophie Mossoux, our sweet friend and babysitter from Belgium. What a gem she is, a real answer to prayer at a time when my prayers were Plan A and there was no Plan B! That's another story. So Sophie took Sam and me around Brussels. We hadn't visited the Mannequin Pis yet - a quirky tiny statue of yes, you guessed it, a peeing boy. It's iconic in Brussels and even moreso in our family.

Seeing the sights through Sophie made it all new again. She had such unique insight to everything we saw, an insider's viewpoint. It was enchanting walking along the cobblestones of her city and what will always be our city, Brussels. She showed us her favorite spots, took us to a statue of a peeing dog we didn't know existed, and we ate mussels at Chez Leon. True Brussels mussels and frites while drinking cherry beer. Basically we ate our way through the day. It was divine.

Then she and Sam made real homemade pasta with pesto sauce, all the while Sophie giving Sam directions in French. It was so sweet. Wow! I was impressed. After finishing the evening with tea and a lovely chat, I slept in her family's guest room, beneath a mystical skylight window, one that I've looked through in my dreams many a night; Kevin and I slept under one just like it in our Belgian home for three years.

We woke to the smell of fresh croissants baking in the oven. Once again, our dear hostess Sophie lavishing us with wonderful hospitality. We drank Senseo coffee, which certainly tastes better in Brussels, and slathered lovely homemade jams and Speculoos spread on our warm pastries. Ahhhh. What a lovely visit to Spa Mossoux! Merci ma cherie Sophie! Tu es un ange, hier and toujours.