"They have. It's good to have someone around from home." Now Ed can say that comfortably, no matter where he might consider 'home' he had someone from both places, and it certainly helped in bringing him to settle here. At the question he turned to transmute a sticky mess, clearing it from the surface with a shrug. He might be pointedly not looking at her when he answers, but it's possible he's just busying himself with the work at hand. "Guess it depends on the person. Birthdays weren't much of a thing where I was before, actually. Some people talked about them when they came up, but others didn't." There certainly weren't parties, at least not like this.

"My brother's, actually." A small smile at that as he moved to gathering scattered empty plates. "I've never had a chance to do something like that for him before, so- it was nice."