My birthday wish

I was born in Saskatchewan, by accident.  Mom and dad had travelled with the boys out to my grandparents farm because I was due to arrive in December and they didn't want to travel with a newborn at x-mas.  Instead, they drove in November to have an early x-mas for my brothers.  On the drive back my dad clipped the ass end of a moose and that was that.  No one was hurt, except the car, but it put my mom into early labour.  Dad stayed with the car and my brothers and my mom was taken to the medical clinic in Swift Current, Saskatchewan by an old trucker who had stopped to help.  So, my actually birthday was quite the affair and my mom always made the birthdays that followed quite an affair too.
Everyone from the 'real' Canmore (I won't refer to it as 'old' Canmore anymore) will remember their childhood birthdays because they were fun.  My mom always made chocolate cake, from scratch with vanilla butter cream icing.  She would wrap dimes, and quarters in parchment paper, not wax paper, and she always put a lot in the cake batter so that every kid at the party would get some money, except Mike Eklof who was allergic to chocolate and she would give him a piece of pie and make sure that a quarter was stuffed in it too.
I'm sure some of you remember how we would all 'dress' for a birthday party, or at least us girls did.  I was such a tomboy and I hated wearing dresses and mom knew that but that didn't stop her.  Every year, the weekend before my birthday party off to Calgary we would go to Sears at North hill mall to buy a new party dress and a new pair of Buster Brown shoes. She would always pick the frilliest, girliest dress she could find and they were always uncomfortable. I would debut the dress at my party and then I would be forced to wear to every party I was invited to through out the following year.  That thankfully stopped at age 11. 
We would play fun inside games because usually by November, there was snow on the ground.  Mom would make dad rearrange the furniture so we had room to play.   She would boil up eggs for the egg races.  We would race with eggs in teaspoons (not tablespoons because my mom liked to challenge us) and later do a race where he had to roll them on the carpet with our noses (Again, she had to make it challenging,  in the normal game an orange would be used).  The clothespin drop was always fun.  We had mason jars and  each of us was given 10 clothespins and whoever dropped the most into their mason jar, won.  Pin the tail on the donkey of course and I can never forget, musical chairs to who else, but Elvis Presley and mom would dance.
Mom never made hot dogs.  I think it's German thing but because they weren't real sausage, she would never serve them.  Mom always made sandwiches, finger sandwiches with the crusts cut off, I guess to make it elegant, yes Bologna can be elegant.  She would also mix a jar of Cheese Whiz with a can of pineapple bits, well drained and make a sandwich spread, they were great and I still make them on occasion.  Another sandwich spread she would make is devilled ham, mixed with mayo, diced bits of cheese, green onion and a bit of hot mustard and it was tasty, tasty.  I don't know where she got these recipes or if she invented them but the sandwiches served with homemade pickles and potato chips were always a hit.  So was her punch.  Every year she would bring out her crystal punch bowl and mix ginger ale, grape juice, raspberry juice and a container of frozen raspberries.  It was lovely but us kids never got to use the crystal punch tea cups, but mom always bought the little paper punch cups that had handles, again I guess to make it more elegant.
Thanks to Kurtis, Tyrone and Trent Auger, Doug Swift, Richard Chapelow, Lana Riva, Sasha Lowther, Mike Eklof, the late Danny Leblanc, Karen Saunders, Tara and Cory Manning, Colleen Mironuck, Laura Smith,  and any others that I've forgotten for some great parties and gifts.  Thank you mom for always making my birthday special.
My birthday November 6, 2011 was the last birthday that I got a card and a gift from my mom.  I always keep the birthday cards from her and my kids.  In it she wrote 'Be thankful for the difficult times, it is during these times that you grow'.  Mom always knew what I needed to hear.  It also included a 200.00 gift certificate and a note, 'Go and buy yourself a new party dress and some shoes' ( every year since I left home, that's what she sent me for my birthday).
I know that this will be the last birthday I spend with my mother.  Instead of shopping and partying I'm going to spend it with my mom.  When I blow out the candles on my cake I will make a wish.  It won't be a wish to make her dementia go away because I know that wish will never come true.  My birthday wish will be that when the time comes that she goes in comfort, with grace and style, with no regrets and mostly that she go peacefully.