Birthdays and Card Games

It was my Hmom and Hdad's birthday on the 10th of November.
I have no clue what the Azeri protocol is so I got a big ol' piece of cardboard, the end of a pack of PC friendly flip-chart paper, and drew. I wrote "Happy Birthday to You" in Azeri with Super Mama and Ata Bomba, while my cluster helped me docrate with flowers, fireworks and whatever else we could muster. I waited until they all went to bed and taped it up in the kitchen so they'd be sure to see it before they both left for work.
Apparently this is exactly what you should do for someone's birthday. I came home for lunch and my two younger sisters both thanked me profusely for it, as they took me in the kitchen to look at it just to make sure I knew what they were thanking me for. When I came home for the evening my Hmom and other Hsis thanked me as well, yet again bringing me to see it for clarification. Beca called to double check that it was their birthday as my Huncle said he thought I was wrong. Once confirmed that meant Beca had to come visit with her Hdad and Hsis. Not of course before Hdad gets home and brings me in the kitchen to show me what he's thanking me for.
I've never been in that kitchen so much in one day.
Nonetheless it was adorable and I was very happy that they enjoyed it so much, they even promised to keep it and bring it out every year. When Beca and co arrived they too were paraded into the kitchen as I found out that many families don't actually know what day people are born on which is why my Huncle had no clue it was his brothers birthday. Afterwards our Hdad's decided to teach us a card game. Most confusing game EVER! I think they were both cheating. No cards under 7 and of course odd Russian letters instead of King & Queen, with no Jacks. Well I was on a team with my Hdad and Beca with hers. It had something to do with putting a card down and the next person either put a higher card of the same suit or the same number. Then the gards were collected by the loser. But whenever Beca and I tried to play our Hdad's yelled at us saying we were giving away our best cards. By the end our Hdad's were sitting next to us blatantly playing our hand against each other until my Hdad claimed that we won! Big burn for Ms Competitive Becadir, haha. I guess it doens't really count as a win since there was cheating  going on the whole time, but I'll still claim it! Also I was under the impression that you have to collect the cards when you lost but by the end there was a huge discard pile, where did that come from? It was a super fun evening and currently my family is cleaning the entire house top to bottom for the American Party.
Pretty much they asked me to invite my cluster over and I did. But now all of the fancy rugs, tablecloths, and handtowels are appearing. There's secret silverware being polished and my Hmom was standing in the window frame mopping the ceiling. Who mops a ceiling?
I'm finding out day after day how truly awesome my Hdad is. He even joined in on the cleaning and was on hands and knees mopping the floor. He called me out of my room to show me and we laughed a bit at it. Spekaing of laughing with my Hdad, he's ridiculous! All we do nowadays is sit next to eachother and laugh, the others look at us like we're crazy but we know, oh we know. They're just jealous! Literally, the ladies in my family probably are. I'm just really happy that now he comes to sit next to me and spends loads of time talking to me, we bond over Silvester Stalone, Al Pacino, and Bruce Lee. He thinks I'm Bruce's protege. I am!
I saw my Hparents bickering about something so I did what any rational person would do. I mimicked arguing with my hands and said dog and cat over and over again. Did you know that "You fight like cats and dogs" is universal? Well it is and my Hdad LOVES it! When I mentioned it a few days later he laughed and then made a heart with his hands, pointed to himself and said Romeo, then at Hmom and said Juliet. So adorable. The best part is that you can tell they're super happy together and their bickering always ends in laughter. Also, who wouldn't love to hear an Azeri man pronounce Romeo & Juliet, priceless.