Birthdays Greetings

Last night Jan and I ate outside (temperature about 29 degrees) at a downtown BBQ place where the grill is in the centre of each table. The meat and vegetables are served raw. A bowl of rice and a small bowl of oil for the grill are served with the food. Also of course several small bowls of sauces. The restaurant is decorated with while "Christmas lights" hanging from overhead trees. It is popular with Vietnamese and expats. So it seemed a great place to celebrate my birthday.
My thanks to a number of you for your birthday greetings. As Jeannie our daughter wrote, who would have guessed a year ago that this birthday would be celebrated while living in Ho Chi Minh City, after parasailing last month in Malaysia!
Shelly sent two video greetings from Simone and Cormac. (Kent was in Boston yesterday.) The greeting was unique: 5 year old Simone sang an entire verse and chorus of the carol "We Three Kings" as she walked back and forth in their family room. This was followed by a resounding verse of Happy Birthday Dear Papa, ending with a "cha, cha, cha". I am not sure where the carol or the cha, cha, cha came from, but they were delightful. Then on the next brief video, with prompting from Shelly, 23 month old Cormac whispered a Happy Birthday.
Anyone living overseas finds the distance from family disconcerting. However we are so fortunate in this era to quickly connect by emails, telephone videos and Skype calls. Jan and I recall our year in Japan four decades ago, when we were communicating by letters and the very occasional, expensive long distance phone call. I cannot imagine the feeling of isolation for those who ventured across oceans 100 years ago ----- often they heard of major family events weeks and even months later. So we could wish to be near family and friends, but we are very grateful for electronic communication.