TGIF: Caked Out

The month of July is always rough in our family. We start out with July 6 being my mother-in-law's birthday, and then mine on the next day. Poor Yusuke, having to deal with both of our desires and needs at the same time. Anyway, what really puts us over the top is all the damn cake! Let's not forget that Yusuke's birthday is later this same month, but by that time, he usually declares that he does not want any cake for his birthday party.

Last weekend, his family met us for a lovely dinner at a hotel restaurant in Makuhari, and they had arranged for the waiters to bring out a small cake for us. Since the restaurant also had a dessert buffet, they offered to wrap up the cake for us to take home so we could partake in the buffet. So, the next morning, I had that piece of cake.

On MIL's birthday, I took the kids to 31 Flavors and bought her a pack of six ice cream sandwiches, and we took them over to her house as part of her birthday present.

On my birthday, she did what she does every year - she came over at about 6pm with a cake and a small bouquet of flowers. She has done this every year since I moved to Japan, so I have caught on to the fact that I should never encourage Yusuke to buy cake for me as well. Despite that, he DOES forget about MIL's tradition and he does go out and buy some sort of cake for me. This year, it was an apple pie from some bakery in Ginza. As always, when he got home and saw the cake from his mom in the fridge, he said we would eat his cake the next morning for breakfast.

The wouldn't have been so bad, but my plans for the next day included taking the day off and enjoying an afternoon tea with my friend Louise. If you don't know about afternoon teas, they include an array of scones and cakes. See photos below.

I think I will stay away from cake for a while.

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes via email, Facebook, this blog, and of course to my face. It was lovely that many people remembered. 34 will be a good year.