So how does a chef celebrate his birthday? By working of course. And not just working, but getting up at 4am to open the restaurant. The only good thing about that (besides that he has a job and I’m grateful we can pay our bills), is that meant he was home to have dinner with us!
After being gone from the house for 12 hours, he came home to 3 very excited little girls who were ready for him to open the presents they had for him (the minute he walked in the door).
What do you get a chef for his birthday anyways? Top Ramen? Lol – no, but he probably would have loved it.
We decided that instead of getting him things that he really doesn’t need or have time to use, we’d each pick something special to do with him and give that to him. My chef/husband doesn’t have a lot of free time (BIG SURPRISE) so the items he has for his “hobbies” unfortunately do not get used that often. We tried this last year and we all loved it. It gives each of us a special date with just him (sometime during the next month.)
Our 9 year old chose to go on a long bike ride with him so she bought him a new bike helmet, water bottle holder and trail mix for their special date.
Our 6 year old wants to do a special movie night with just Daddy (Night at the Museum 2), so she bought lots of fun snacks for their evening, and even made a special popcorn holder out of construction paper.
Our 5 year old really, really, really wanted to take him to lunch at Red Robin, so a gift card was her gift. (The first place she really, really, really, really wanted to take him was vetoed by Mom and sisters as we knew my husband didn’t like it at all. This is not a huge favorite, but hopefully he’ll get a decent burger. Fingers crossed!!)
As for me, I planned a day date for just the two of us, without the kids!! I had a few ideas for him, but will let him choose what we do. Whatever it is, it will be a quiet and peaceful day. 🙂
We had burgers for dinner and blackberry cobbler for dessert (because my decorated cakes always look horrible and I feel like a chefwife failure for not being able to make a nice birthday cake.)
As the night ends, the kids are in bed and my chef/husband is asleep on the sofa near me, exhausted from a long day in the kitchen and some very hyper children who were so excited to celebrate him tonight on his birthday!
How do you other chefwives celebrate birthdays? Are you brave enough to make a cake? Please tell me I’m not the only one who fails at this!
From one chefwife to another,
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My chef’s birthday is coming up soon and I got a great deal at Lake Tahoe for two rooms. We will spend the weekend in Tahoe as a family. Something my husband loves doing. We will be working on his actual birthday, probably closing so we won’t be doing dinner or a cake that night. I do feel intimidated cooking for him sometimes, but I know he always appreciates it, regardless.
A
Time away is always a great gift! It’s so nice to get out of the day to day routine. 🙂 Hope it’s a great time away as a family!!
We celebrated my chef’s birthday last night. He got up early and got to go fishing for a couple hours before his long day at the restaurant. His sous is on vacation right now so days have been long. Dinner and brownies were in the oven when he came home. I do not attempt cooking or baking often but I wanted to do something kind of special for his birthday! We don’t have kids so it was a pretty quiet night, but that’s what my chef kept telling me he wanted!
How great that he was able to go fishing before work. Sounds like he was well taken care of on his birthday!! We love nice quiet evenings too! 🙂
We don’t generally do anything. His birthday is the day after mine in the summer. C is usually in Missouri and her birthday is a week after his. We did go out the weekend after to get burgers and then a free meal at a local place. I will bake for him and cook special meals, he came home early on my birthday and took a nap (he was opening a restaurant) so I served him breakfast in bed on my birthday, for supper. lol This year, I made C’s birthday cake from scratch when she got home.
Love that you served him breakfast in bed on your birthday. 🙂 Opening a restaurant is so hard and exhausting!!