Happy Birthday!

Ah, Birthdays.  Love them or hate them, they show up every year, right on time.  Every year.  When we are little, birthdays are almost as good as Christmas.  We look forward to the celebratory party and the PRESENTS!  Oh the presents!  And the cake and ice cream and all the other little kids who get to come over and help tear up our parents’ house.  As we grow older we may or may not still want the party, but the cake and ice cream and PRESENTS?  Oh YES indeed!  Bring them on!  When we get a bit older still and, if we are at home and not at college or working somewhere, we STILL enjoy the attention that we draw because of our birthday (although, if we ARE away, that card with the green inside is quite nice to see and would buy a ton of alcohol all those school items we so needed.).  And why shouldn’t we enjoy the attention of a birthday?  When we are growing up--and even in adulthood-- it is, at the very least, one day out of the year that we know someone, somewhere is very glad that we were born.  And we might also enjoy that focus of attention. 

Later, when we have children of our own, birthdays take on a whole new dimension.  Suddenly, it’s not about us anymore, it’s about them.  We didn’t plan it this way but each of our 4 daughters’ birthday months are 3 months apart- January, April, July, and October—so, once every 3 months there was quite a shindig happening somewhere for someone’s birthday.  If their birthday fell on a week day, we celebrated with a family dinner of their favorite meal served up on the birthday plate followed by cake and ice cream and presents and the party was held on the weekend.  Up until their third birthdays, the parties were more like big family and friend cookouts- regardless of the season (but, trust me, the January one was easier than the July one because, and I may have mentioned this before, THE SUMMERS DOWN HERE ARE BRUTAL).  As they got older and became interested in having their friends celebrate with them, we got caught up in the falderal of the birthday party for profit scam ventured out into the worlds of Chucky Cheese, Burger King, Gymboree, Splash Island, etc.  And, yes, they are money making rackets.  However, it’s THEIR place that gets messed up and THEY do the cleaning so, for me, well worth the money!  A bit older still and we went to a ceramics place and painted ceramics.  We went to an outdoors place and climbed walls and kayaked.  And, one of the most memorable in my mind's eye, the magicians that came to our house!  Oh, they were so entertaining for the kids AND the adults (one in particular had JOKES and the JOKES WERE FUNNY...NO... HILARIOUS!).  This same magician had the kids so mesmerized I considered having him move in permanently!  Seriously, 20+ seven-year-olds just sat there, staring in amazement (this guy was good I tell you.).  And the slumber parties--the one where the neighbors got with us and we played the Bloody Mary thing on them--HILARIOUS--or the time one of the attendees showed up with a stomach bug and, before the night was over we all became aware of this and everyone was sick...Oh yeah, good times.  Once our girls became teenager-ish, we had the perfunctory teen gatherings (and, looking back, this was about the time Hubs disappeared on party days...).  Now, these parties were different.  Boys were now more included on the guest lists (for an entirely different reasons) and, while most of the boys were very sweet, they are louder than girls, way more physically active and the flirting was shameless.  And let's not forget the music at decibel levels that shook mountains (and, when my hearing starts to fade, you better believe this is what I will blame it on.).  Oh and PLEASE remember the time that Deanie was having a party and every kid in attendance SWORE to me that it would be perfectly okey dokey with their parents if I let them watch SCARY MOVIE (the scariest part of the movie is how many people went to see it--this movie could be categorized under funny porn.).  Yeah, right.  I was well aware of the progressive attitudes of the kids at the School of the Arts that our two oldest daughters attended, HOWEVER, not all of the parents adhered to this train of thought so, NO, to SCARY MOVIE.  Nevertheless, even these parties turned out to be fun.  As the girls reached latter high school days and college, the parties became more of a family night complete with the birthday girl’s most favorite meal, cake, ice cream and, of course, presents (unless they were away at school in which case we drove to the campus and took them out to eat and gave them their presents.  The days of the big bash parties are almost obsolete at our house now.  Except for DoodleBug who still enjoys a big party (for her 18^th birthday, we took her and 100 a few of her friends out to Capers Island and they had a blast!). 
        

What happens to our birthdays during those childrearing years?  In our family, for the most part, family meals.  Hubs or I, depending on whose birthday was up, got to eat off the birthday plate and have our favorite meal (which I prepared regardless of whose birthday it was…) followed by cake, ice cream and gifts.  Pretty much they were here and gone in a flash.  Needless to say, however, the days of the mounting excitement over a birthday has been long gone with Hubs and me.  Now, they come and go quietly and, when they’re over, all we are is another year older.  And so, as I complained about being yet another year older as I celebrated my 45^th birthday last week-- again-  (I’ve been celebrating my 45^th birthday for 8 years now because I'm not that thrilled with the 50s), I’m reminded by my dad -- “It’s better than the alternative!”  True that Dad.  True that!