The end of summer into fall ushers in birthday season in our house.  Monk is August, Kevin is September, Trunk is October and I am November (we will be talking a lot more about this soon).  And in between our immediate family’s birthdays there are several other family members that have their special days too.  This weekend we are celebrating Trunk’s 4th birthday!

I love birthdays.  I love celebrating birthdays. I love giving birthday presents. I love making the day special for the birthday boy/girl. Birthdays are amazing because it is a day devoted to that one person.  It’s a day to let them know you are happy they were born. Other holidays are great too.  It is wonderful to come together and collectively celebrate which ever holiday the group is celebrating, but birthdays are personal, it’s a coming together about the life of one person.

My mom was the person who instilled this love of birthdays in me.  We didn’t just have a birthday, we had a birthweek.  It wasn’t fancy.  She found the simple ways to make us feel so special.  The birthday boy/girl would get to sit in the front seat the entire week to and from school. She would put little notes in our locker (she worked at the school). She would bring us a special lunch on our birthday and sometimes a treat.  After school we got to have whatever the birthday boy/girl wanted for dinner and a mom made birthday cake.  Sometimes there would be parties, but more often it was a family affair, just the five of us.  And quite often the dinner of choice would be at The Family Buggy where a giant stuffed bear would eat at your table when it was your birthday.

It was the little things that made the day special. And I hope that is what I am giving to my kids too. I don’t want to spoil them or have them be entitled, but for one day of the year, I want them to know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that their birth is a big deal.  That their life has purpose and meaning.  It was the gift my mom gave to me.  She gave it to me every day, but she especially gave it to me on my birthday.