Flashback Friday: Writing Your Story One Week at a Time

 

            For the last couple of Fridays, I’ve given you some examples of why keeping your story matters, and today I want to give you another idea of something to jot down about your own childhood. Today we’re going with the theme of birthdays…inspired by the fact that birthday season begins in our household this week!

            How did you celebrate birthdays growing up?

            I find this topic so fascinating, because celebration styles have changed wildly since I was little. I’ll tell you more about mine in a second, but when I was in my twenties, birthday celebrations became elaborate – especially for kids. Huge parties, elaborate themes…how did parents not become utterly exhausted by it all?

            Perhaps they did, and now celebrations seem to be calming back down again. The trends ebb and flow, but the stories are worth keeping, no matter what!

            How did you celebrate with your family? Your friends? What kinds of gifts did you get? Did you have traditions? Special meals? Did you celebrate your birthday at school? What did birthdays look like for you?

            When I was little, our (equally little) extended family gathered once a month to celebrate all the birthdays from that month. Since my sister and I were both May babies, our birthday party was always combined with Mother’s Day and was often held at our house. Mom would set up tables in our living room (the only space big enough to hold the whole family, even though it was small), and I shared the piano bench with her as the chair at the end of the table.

            Mom would often make pot roast because it was a great meal to make on a Sunday (slow cooker!) and also one of my favorite meals. My Grandma decorated the birthday cake, and my aunt would bring cream puffs or caramel surprise brownies – both favorites of mine!

            We ate together and then celebrated birthdays and mothers before everyone went home for Sunday afternoon naps.

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            Our school celebrated everyone’s birthday in the classroom, and I’m old enough that we could celebrate with homemade treats if we wanted! My birthday always came at the end of the school year when none of us needed (but all of us wanted) more sugar. Mom did a great job of coming up with creative ideas for birthday treats. The two I remember most vividly were third and fourth grades. In third grade, we had root beer floats, and in fourth grade, we made giant sugar cookies and personalized each one for the kids in the class. So fun! Everyone would sing, I would get embarrassed, and then we’d eat our treats!

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            Friend parties, in my childhood, were reserved for milestone years. I had one at age five, ten, thirteen, fifteen, and sixteen. (My 18^th birthday came the same week as my high school graduation, so we had neither time nor capacity for two parties.) My fifth birthday had a combination of friends from school and church, and while I don’t remember a ton about it, I remember enjoying it.

            My tenth birthday also had a mix of friends from church and school, and Mom came up with a bunch of fun games for us to play. It was a gorgeous day, and we were able to play outside! (That probably made her happy!) My 16^th birthday was a sleepover, and I remember crying after everyone went to sleep because I wasn’t ready to grow up yet. (I thought 16 was grown up, I guess?)

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            On the other years, I often had a friend over for dinner or we invited one to go along as we went out to eat. If we stayed home, Mom would make anything for dinner I wanted, and if we went out to eat, I could pick the restaurant and anything on the menu.

            Mom and Dad always gave me gifts, and one of my favorites was my chihuahua, Lassie!  Mom also sang to me to wake me up on my birthday. Not being much of a morning person, I probably didn’t show proper appreciation for that. 😉

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            Ryan and I have made our own traditions for our birthdays now that we’re married. One of my rules is that all birthdays must be celebrated on the day. It’s okay to celebrate on additional days, too, but the day itself must be recognized.

            Much like the birthdays of my childhood, our days include a special meal at home or eating out at the destination of the birthday person’s choice! We get a special treat, and back when we used to live near Starbucks, we’d get our free birthday coffee, too!

            We exchange gifts, and we write special blog posts for each other.

            We also take a special trip somewhere around our birthdays – just to do something extra fun!

            So how about you? What about your birthday traditions?