New Zealand Adventure: Jocelyn's Birthday

Jocelyn's birthday was on Friday the 13th this year and since she did not really celebrate her 30th birthday since we had literally just moved to New Zealand, she thought it would be a good opportunity to celebrate with all her new friends.

We reserved some space at a local bar called 205 Yakitori Lounge which is Jocelyn's favorite bar in Christchurch. It is a dimly lit bar with plush couches, curtains - a great ambiance.

Jocelyn wore her favorite dress and even had massive false eyelashes put on which absolutely makes her day! To top it all off, Jocelyn brought Harry her nail guy a photo of the dress she would be wearing and he did her nails to match! What a genius.

We had about 25-30 people join us over the course of the evening from Jocelyn's co-workers to couples we met while in the Cook Islands! So many people also unexpectedly brought gifts which Jocelyn really appreciated. Most of all, the gifts really showed how well people here already know her! She got a beautiful metallic gold clutch from Scott and Debi and some amazing pieces of funky jewelry from Andy and Jess. She was really touched.

We ordered a few plates of yakitori (grilled meat and veggies) for guests and around 10pm we treated guests to a champagne toast and Jocelyn's favorite cupcakes from the cupcake parlour - decorated with edible glitter of course! Since Trey got Jocelyn cupcakes from there last year it seems to have become a birthday tradition of sorts for Jocelyn's day.

Everyone seemed to have an excellent time and some friends even asked Jocelyn to plan parties for them in the future which bodes quite well for Jocelyn's event planning business that she hopes to start when we return back to the US!

It was a fantastic birthday and was so great to see for both of us just how many people have come to love us and that we have come to love in just the past year here.