Birthdays & Red Velvet Cookies

greggredvelvet Today is my husband Gregg’s birthday. I won’t tell you how old he is, but I might leave you a clue. :-) (Hint: today is the second anniversary of his fortieth birthday.)

Since he’s 8,000 miles away in Afghanistan, I had to get creative with celebrating his birthday.

My husband is not a fan of his birthday. Not because of any vain attempt at wanting to push the clock back and stay young. His goes much deeper than most of ours.

His mother was a beautiful, adored woman. So adored that now, 34 years after she died, whenever someone in her family sees Jeb’s red hair, they always, without fail, say, “Oh, just like Ryta Gail’s!” Then they love on him and talk about her. Without exageration, this has happened about 15 times.

She died of breast cancer right after Gregg’s 8th birthday. The last thing she did for him was bake him a red velvet cake. A few days later, she was in the hospital. A few days later (the 29th of December) she died, and they buried her on New Year’s Day. So, all of the holidays, from the National Day of Gregg through New Year’s Day are hard on my husband (and his siblings).

GreggRytaGail In an attempt to honor this woman who was loved by so many, I have sought, and finally found, the perfect red velvet cake recipe.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t send Gregg a red velvet cake. So, I decided to find a red velvet cookie recipe. It was hard to find one that didn’t start with a red velvet cake mix as a base. I finally found this recipe. It was amazing.

I made a double batch and packed it off to my husband along with a keychain digital picture frame filled with pictures of me and the kids.

The cookies were a HUGE hit. Huge. I am so pleased that I chose to do that and not skip the red velvet tradition this year.

Happy Birthday, my wonderful husband. I love you so much. May God bless your coming year and may He use you in tremendous ways.