10 on the 10th - Celebrating Birthdays

On the 10th of each month, Marsha In the Middle asks ten questions for us to answer in as much or little detail as we wish. This time around there's just one question, but I have to come up with ten answers. Here goes!

Two of my sons have October birthdays, which are coming up soon! We need to make some plans!

1. I love that family birthdays are a chance to connect and celebrate. Making or receiving birthday phone calls, sending or receiving cards, maybe a party . . . it's the togetherness aspect that's the best for me. I'm a quality time gal.

2. Birthday dinners. When my kids were young I started the tradition of letting the birthday kid request what they wanted me to make for their birthday dinner. When it was my birthday, the family took me out for dinner. We still do birthday dinners, when we're together to celebrate the birthday, although it's more often dinner at a restaurant than at home. Now that everyone is grown up and we can all pitch in to pay for dinner, it's a bit more doable. And for ME, any good excuse to eat out is something I enjoy!

3. Birthday cake! I hardly ever bake a cake, and I hardly ever eat cake, so birthday cake is a huge treat!

4. Birthday cheesecake. My husband always requests my chocolate cheesecake for his birthday, and it's so good, it gets its own number on my list.

5. My family's version of the Happy Birthday song. I honestly don't know exactly how this started, but my family has a tradition going back to when I was a teen . . . of singing the birthday song as badly as possible. So somehow this hilarious tradition has lived on, and since we live all spread out, the birthday song has become the highlight of the birthday phone call. As many of the family as possible gathers round and we make a group call and "sing" the birthday song. In weird voices, at odd tempos, in differing keys and times, with purposely horrific "harmonies", with strange sound effects, bungling the words . . . the goal is to make each birthday song more hilariously horrible than the last. 

6. Birthday parties. If I don't have to plan them. My birthday is right after Christmas so I was out of luck when it came to birthday parties when I was growing up. And I'm not good at planning parties, so I was super low key about planning birthday parties for my kids. They could have friends over and we'd have cake and ice cream and presents, but I didn't plan party games and favors and all of that. My style is basically an open house. That said, I always enjoyed having people over, and loved attending parties, and birthdays are a pretty good excuse for having a party!

7. Memories. Especially when my kids have birthdays, I tend to remember previous birthdays and to remember when they were born. Obviously there are a lot of good memories to look back on when I have a birthday, or when my husband does, and that's a special part of a birthday celebration.

8. Presents. No kidding, I didn't think of this until this far down the list. Obviously not a super high priority for me, although I really like getting gifts for people I love, and I like receiving gifts too.

9. Birthday cards and Facebook greetings. Isn't it nice to get fun mail instead of just junk mail and bills? I try to mail birthday cars to my family members that live far away, even though I'm often late. I am super hit and miss about wishing my Facebook friends a happy birthday, so it always surprises me when I get loads of birthday greetings on my day. I do my best to respond to each one.

10. Whenever someone marks another birthday, it's another reminder that we're still on this earth for a purpose and it's a chance to look back and see what we've accomplished, and look forward to set some goals. 

As you may know, this is our hostess Marsha's birthday month, so please join me in wishing her a very happy birthday!

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Thanks for thinking birthdays with me! What are your favorite things about birthdays? Leave a comment and let me know!

This post will be linked at Marsha In the Middle for the October Edition of 10 on the 10th.

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