Sammi's World

Happy Birthday, Dean!

2012 had been shaping up to be a pretty good year. We made it through the majority of January without any incidents. Of course being in the profession of hunting the supernatural, there was always a slight chance one of the boys, my father, or even myself could get hurt. Even though the boys had still been on an extended vacation with me in Georgia, they would still help my father on hunts from time to time when he was in the area OR one of the surrounding states. It was a new year, yes, but the story stayed the same, as did the players. There are always chances to add to your story, though, no matter who you are or what you do for a living. As I stated earlier, though, we had made it through most of that first month without anything major occurring. January 24th happened to be Dean's birthday, and it was the first day of the new year that we almost had a major catastrophe that had NOTHING to do with hunting or the supernatural. Sam and I had devised a plan to get Dean out of the house so I could surprise him with a small birthday party. Sam was to take Dean out for breakfast and then some mini golf while I decorated the house and baked him a cake. "You're not coming with us?" Dean asked me. "Sam wanted to spend some quality time with his big brother for his birthday," I told him. "Is that so wrong?" "We spend a lot of quality time together," Dean said. "Yes," Sam admitted, "but we were always busy hunting. This is the first time in years you don't have to go out and hunt for your birthday and I want to cherish that with you." "Besides," I said, "I haven't done housework in about a week. I need to catch up on my cleaning." "The house doesn't look THAT bad," Dean said. "Just go and have some birthday fun with your brother," I told him. "I'll be here when you get back and we can celebrate some more." "Fine," Dean said, finally giving up. He gave me a hug, Sam gave me a kiss, and I said, "You boys go have fun. See you when you get back." As soon as I heard the car pull away from the house, I went into the kitchen and starting putting together Dean's cake. I set the oven on pre-heat, mixed all the ingredients together, poured them into my cake pan, then went to work making the icing while I waited for the oven. In the middle of making the icing, I noticed that the oven light had finally gone off, so I put the cake in and set my timer. Once the icing was finished, I checked the cabinets to see if I had any pastry bags and tips that I could use to decorate the cake even more. Luckily for me, Nana loved to bake all sorts of goodies, so she had lots of supplies tucked away in those cabinets. I got everything together that I would need and checked to see how the cake was coming along. My timer showed that I still had about 15 minutes to wait, so with the icing done and nothing else to do at that moment, I went to work hanging up decorations all throughout the house. Sam and I had located streamers, balloons, and banners with classic cars all over them. It wasn't easy...we had to special order them, but Dean hadn't had a proper birthday party in years. Granted the "party" was only going to be the three of us, but you catch my drift. About halfway through decorating the house, the timer decided to go off. I ran back into the kitchen and tested the cake to make sure it was cooked through. When the toothpick came out clean, I shut the oven down, put the cake on the stove top to cool off, and went back to decorating. Before I continue, let me just say that I have never been a fan of heights, therefore I usually DID NOT trust ladders. Knowing that I was on my own for this decorating gig, I decided to brave the ladder to hang some of the decorations up a little higher. Everything was going smoothly until I tried to go back down the ladder. My pant leg got caught on a snag in one of the rungs (it was an old ladder) and I fell backward. I didn't hit the floor, but instead found myself hanging upside down from near the top of the ladder. Just my luck, right? I tried to pull myself back up, but that wasn't working. Since I was very close to the couch, I decided to try a different approach. I stuck my hand into my right side pocket and pulled out the butterfly knife Dean had given me for my birthday one year. I very carefully started using the knife to cut at the pant leg until I felt it break free and I fell safely onto the couch. Crisis averted! I knew in my heart that dilemma could have ended much worse, like say with me in the hospital sporting another broken bone or two and possibly a concussion. I put the knife back in my pocket, folded the ladder up and put it away, then made my way back into the kitchen to decorate Dean's birthday cake. A few hours later, I was sitting on one of the living room chairs awaiting the return of Sam and Dean. When they finally walked in the door a little while later, the look on Dean's face was absolutely priceless. "You guys did this all for me?" he asked. "We did," I said. "You haven't had a decent birthday celebration in years," Sam told him. "We wanted to make this one special." Dean looked around at the decorations. "Where did you get these?" he asked. "Classic cars?! This is awesome!" "We had to special order those," I told him. "But you are completely worth it." "We even decided to order one of your favorite things for dinner tonight," Sam added. "Hopefully you still enjoy burgers." "Are you kidding me?!" Dean said happily. "You know I LOVE burgers. You guys are the best!" "There's one more thing," I told him. "Unfortunately, it's not a pie, but I would like to think it's just as good as one." I went into the kitchen and grabbed the cake off the counter. As I made my way back into the living room, I could see the smile on Dean's face widen even more. I put the cake down on the table in front of the boys and took a step back. "This cake looks incredible," Dean said. "Where'd you get it?" "I made it," I told him. "The icing is homemade too." "Don't tell us," Sam said, "you used to decorate cakes for a living, too?" "I worked as a baker's apprentice for a very short time back when I was in my teens," I admitted. "This has been the best birthday I have had in a really long time," Dean said. "You two went through a lot of trouble for me today, and I really appreciate it." "You deserve it," Sam told him. "This year is already shaping up to be one of the best we've ever had," Dean said. "I'm excited to see what else lies ahead for the three of us." That was one statement I knew all three of us agreed on....