We celebrated Natalie's birthday a day early this year since she had a big weekend ahead of her--state drama! I talked about that in December. She requested butternut squash soup this year. We were hoping to recreate the delicious soup we had in Seattle. It turned out pretty good! Unfortunately everyone else in the family hates squash and hated it. She and I enjoyed it at least. We also made a raspberry sorbet for her dessert that was yummy. I can't remember now what we gave her except that I think she got some airpods and we gave her my old macbook. We watched The Office and had fun relaxing that night. Then we got some snow on her birthday which was fun too.
It was a big year for Natalie and she grew a ton. She became a better actor and singer. She got more leading roles--Katherine in Newsies and Macbeth. She worked concessions at the school and then she got her first real job working at Texas Roadhouse (and learned that customer service isn't always the best). She did great, though, and is really skilled at talking to people and being friendly so it suited her well. She had her first boyfriend and then got through her first breakup. She grew closer to her friends and they were a big support. I love that she has them:
She struggled a bit with school in her senior year but only because she had a lot on her plate with plays and drama competitions and she procrastinated. She realized the thing that most seniors do--grades don't really matter that year so it didn't affect her much. She is still super smart and I love having deep conversations with her about a character, psychology, politics, or just human behavior in general. She's a deep thinker and a deep feeler and I love that about her. She is still cooking and making amazing food that she frequently shares with all of us. She is always coming up with beautiful arrangements of songs that she sometimes shares on Instagram and I just love hearing her sing and play. I'll sure miss that when she moves out. She is so funny and still makes us all laugh. She loves people and has a ton of empathy. She just glows and people want to be around her. We don't know what we'd do without Natalie.
