A great story Amergin, with what sounds like a very happy ending.

My birthday is 12/31. As a kid, as my folks were great partygoers, my birthday was pretty much ignored...too close to Xmas, and overshadowed by the evening's celebrations. But it got better as I started dating, and on my 21st b'day my friends gave me a fantastic New Year's Eve/B'day party as a total surprise...so that was one best b'day.

2nd best b'day I ever had...there was an unusually low tide on the 31st and my husband and I spent hours out on reef, much farther out in the ocean than I've ever been able to walk before, examining tidepools full of creatures as weird, amazing and unbelievable as anything I've ever seen in a sci-fi movie. I will never forget it.