Sunday, January 18, 2009

Shirley Holds Precious Wine



The stores are filled with bottles of wine with fascinating names but the name on the bottle Shirley is holding is
ESTATE, wine from the Biltmore Estate.
The wine is Shirley’s, birthday gift to celebrate her 87th birthday. The unique bottle has no paper label but rather an etching of the Biltmore Estate. She was pleased to learn the story of the Biltmores, Learning when they had no money, they simply decided to take up the suggestion of creating tours of the huge and very lovely premises.

The bottle of red wine, was tucked in a gift basket with golden earrings, A chili chocolate and a Peanut Toffee Crunch bar, a package of mini-banana nut muffins added to the extra special birthday gift. From her son, Larry and his wife. Debbie who is adept at creating Happy Birthdays, among life’s many celebrations.
Lunch at the local StoneFire Grill was an enjoyable treat topped off with a lighted candle on carrot cake and their hard to forget chocolate brownies.

A two night stay in the once elegant Santa Anita Inn, now restored to once again elegant hotel was on the menu for a birthday gift to Shirley from Jack. The Santa Anita Inn is a stones throw from the Santa Anita race track, a place Shirley has decided would make a fun birthday celebration. While she didn’t experience her usual winning streak, she smiled through a fun day of enjoying the track and taking pictures to save ior posterity.

The weather was perfect for her special day which also made it perfect to add some geocaching to the once a year reason to celebrate. Her birthday was a smashing success, with the credit belonging to Jack Ogborn, who is also a pro at knowing how to create an Extra Special birthday celebration!