felíz cumpleaños

when my mother enters a room "the entertainer" should be playing. in my mind, it's always been her theme song. i get an image of her dressed as charlie chaplin - which she actually did once for halloween and let me tell you, she made the cutest chaplin. totally pulled it off. and not in the androgynous way lady gaga does when she dons menswear, but in a chic, coco chanel kind of way. anyway. you can practically see her shuffling into a room with a bamboo cane in hand, batting her thick, eyeliner-rimmed eyes.

my mother is completely enchanting to a child. she had very little growing up and was artist by profession, so she could create most anything out of nothing. it was magical. she baked elaborately themed cakes for our birthdays, sewed all our costumes for halloween, made all our dresses for prom, and arranged beautiful centerpieces for every holiday dinner. we used to joke that our weddings would be very inexpensive because she could provide everything: the gown, the four-tired cake, the photography, even the music. now I see the same wonder in the eyes of her grandchildren whenever she's around.

today is my mothers birthday. ¡que celebras tu día felíz, con FANta naRANja!