Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Question of the Week - How to Celebrate a Birthday

As I noted last year, July 14th is my favorite day of the year. Because...

It's my birthday!

I love birthdays. It's your own special day, the one day of the year that is all about you! Even when you share it with someone else, you don't share it with many people. It's not like Christmas or some other holiday in which so much of the world shares. It's a special day for you and just a few others. It's the one day of the year on which you know all your friends and family (who remember) will think of you. People call, email, text and post special messages with happy wishes.

Normally, I would take the day off work (I do have that!) and spend the day doing whatever struck my fancy. I would usually top it off with dinner out with my husband at a nice French restaurant (today is also Bastille Day, so I love to celebrate at a French restaurant). But this year, I am a bit restricted in what I can do for my birthday. It's a weekday, so most people (including Londo, who is back to work this week) are at work. The Pookie is one month old today, and with the on demand nursing and without having started pumping yet, I can't go far from him for long.

But for this week's question of the week, I'm wondering:

How do you like to/plan to celebrate your birthday?

For this year, I won't celebrate how I used to, and that's okay. My MIL is staying with us this week, and she made me blueberry pancakes for breakfast. My daughter sang me "Happy Birthday" numerous times this morning. I don't have to go to work, and my MIL currently has my son (Londo is back to work this week) so I can have a break and get a shower and whatever I want. I'm thinking of ordering some Indian food (I LOVE Indian food!) and picking it up for lunch. Londo got me a gift certificate to Amazon, so I'm going spend a lot of the day shopping online for books! And this afternoon, I'm finally going to at least start watching the A&E/BBC version of Pride and Prejudice, which I've had on DVD for a long time but haven't watched yet. (It's long, so I probably won't finish until tomorrow or the next day.)

These are good plans, and I'm really happy that I'm not celebrating in my normal fashion. Because it means that I have my two wonderful children this year, and they are totally worth giving up fancy French restaurants for a few years. :-)

How about you all? Do you like big parties? Small get togethers? Quiet dinners out? Ignoring your special day all together? How do you celebrate your birthday?

13 comments:

MommyEm said...

Total Fantasy - I would love a huge surprise party with all my friends and family from all over the world, catered by Pod restaurant in Philly, and a copy of my wedding cake which was fabulous, but I only got about two bites of during and after the wedding. After the party I would board a cruise with my hubby to Bermuda to relive our honeymoon, sans kid, and come back rested, relaxed and ready to take on the world.

Semi-Fantasy - I would like a small surprise party with cake and really good ice cream with as many friends and family who could make it. I would love my house cleaned and tidied, and I would like a plane ticket to go see my parents.

Reality - Hubby gets me tickets to a concert and we enjoy a night in the city on our own. We've seen KT Tunstall, Eddie Izzard, and Indigo Girls so far, so I really enjoy these gifts.

Becoming Mommy said...

We mostly ignore mine.
I like to meet my girlfriends for coffee, or go out to dinner with my family, but that's pretty much all want--just a little "hey, we remembered!"

Becoming Mommy said...

oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDY!!

paola said...

Happy birthday CM

Both my birthday and our wedding anniversary are in the same week so we generally go out to a restaurant to celebrate both. Hubby is a bit of a foodie so we usually spalsh out a bit on a nice meal, trying to outdo the previous year ( fine by me! I mean it is only once a year) This year we decided we would also incorporate hubby's birthday and birthday presents and went to Stockholm for the weekend with the kids. So no presents as such but we got to spend a lovely weekend in a most beautiful city. Bring on next year!!!

Cloud said...

Happy Birthday!

I predict the A&E Pride and Prejudice will suck you in and six hours later, you'll wonder where your day went. At least that's what always happens to me.

I have noticed that my birthday celebrations are a lot more low key now. And that is just fine with me. Really, all I want is some cookies and ice cream.

Briana said...

Happy Birthday!

I usually like to spend the day alone, visiting a museum and then taking in a movie in the afternoon. Sounds like you've got lots of fun small indulgences planned for yourself today - enjoy!

BisBink said...

Happy Birthday!

electriclady said...

Happy birthday! Usually I get one night out with my husband and one night out with my girlfriends--three friends all have birthdays within a month of mine, so the four of us go out every year. I would love to have a huge surprise party (or just a huge party--for my 25th birthday I did just that) but realistically, I don't have enough friends anymore for that!

k&p said...

Happy Birthday!

When my husband and I were in grad school in Florida, we would camp at the Disney campground, spend the day at the campground waterpark (it is no longer there), then have dinner at downtown Disney. It was a really special splurge for grad students and I have very fond memories.

This year I spent my birthday in Chicago at a meeting without my husband and son. Next year the meeting is in Orlando, so we plan to relive grad school memories.

Happy Birthday again!

I'm Not Skippy said...

I take the day off work, do something fun and hope no one says "Happy Birthday." It's not about getting older, it's about getting recognition for something as dumb as the day I was born. I love attention, but not for that.

I spent my birthday, yesterday, on a float trip with my wife and 2 other people. Nothing fancy. Just a couple friends, a canoe, a picnic lunch, in a river.

There is one thing I do use my birthday status for. . . hehe.

KG said...

Happy birthday!

Sumo's 2nd birthday is next Saturday and HE is having his very first birthday party (he was sick last year). It's going to be really small with just 3 toddlers + their parents and it will be at a park. He's really excited, though, and specifically requested birthday party hats.

As for me? Man ... I hardly ever do birthday anything. I can't even remember my birthday from last year except I remember my present (a camera). That's pretty sad. I need to remedy that.

Katie said...

Happy (late) Birthday!

DH's birthday and mine are just a few days apart, so we typically go out to dinner to celebrate. We also try to get ourselves a small present (mine last year was a particular set of knitting needles), but the ever-teeny budget doesn't always allow for it.

You haven't seen the BBC P&P yet?! Oh, are you in for a treat...

Shellie said...

You know what I do? All of those things, depending on the circumstances and my mood when birthday time rolls around.

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