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Drumroll please!

Bren’s favorite present ever is… THIS!

Don’t judge a book by its cover. Turn to the first page!

In case you can’t read it, it says “30 (or so) things we love about you!”.

About a week before his birthday party, I asked 30 or so friends to email me a little blurb that detailed what they loved about Bren. A pretty simple task I think, with the only tricky bit being knowing when to stop. Then I asked those same friends to send me a photo of themselves. And then I spent ALL WEEK putting it together! I stuck the photos down, wrote the quotes in my very best handwriting (thanks mum!) and then decorated it with stickers, yarn, ribbon and little hand-drawn doodles. It took forever. I even stayed up ’til 3am on Saturday in order to finish it!

But oh! It was so worth it! After we sang Bren happy birthday and he blew out the candles on his cake (yellow layer cake with chocolate chips and coconut-pecan frosting), we presented it to him. I was so excited that I forgot to take photos guys, but after he got over the surprise, he found himself a corner and read each page.

When he was done, all I heard was, “Baba! Put the stupid beer down!” (I had my arms full of beer he got as presents), and I saw a red-faced Bren, tears streaming down his face, coming in for a big ol’ Brendan-Bearhug. And then he mumbled in my ear, “that is the best present ever.” He was so so touched. So well done everyone! We made him cry! More importantly, we made him realise that he is a wonderful man, whom we love because he thoroughly makes everyone he meets feel special and loved. Yipppeeeee ba!

More pics for ya:

-x-
aarti