We were a bit late getting out of the house to go to Erna's birthday party. Fortunately, we were only a little late -- being that we had come the furthest to be there, everyone was waiting for us to arrive before starting the festivities!

Technically, Erna had already celebrated her birthday the day before (March 9th), but the party was on the weekend so everyone could come.

The celebration began with the reading of Erna's life story -- put together by her relatives, read and amply commented on (to the entertainment of all!) by Erna's god-daughter, Nora. (Latvians have particularly strong bonds between godparents and godchildren.) Erna and Gaida listened with rapt attention, as did we all.

Everyone brought flowers for the "birthday girl." (Well, almost everyone. Sad to say, we committed a major faux pas -- arriving without flowers.) The long stream of well-wishers presented their boquets and congratulated Erna in turn. (By the way, never, never, never! bring an even number of flowers unless you're attending a funeral!) It was clear to us that even though we could tell family is family, these were friends who were just as close, if not closer. As Gaida introduced us, the most common phrase was, "mans draugs no Sibirijas." My friend from Siberia.

Of course, we first sang "Daudz Baltu Dieninu!" -- Many White (care-free) Days -- the traditional Latvian birthday song. A little food and a little drink later, and Arno was leading the chorus, setting an example for us all!

Speaking of things one should never, never do, that would also include eating anything in the 24 hours prior to any Latvian celebration. We ate and we ate and we ate... hours later, our "mielasts" (feast!) reigned victorious -- there was more than enough food left to feed us all over again! We relaxed and chatted.

As warm and well-fed as we were, it was the polar (in both senses of the word!) opposite outside -- cold and dreary. Wait, Peters likes dismal and bleak for picture taking... maybe there's something artistic here...click to view a larger version