Birthdays

I was thinking today about birthdays because my Real Simple magazine was giving recommendations on ways to make memories with your family. I know I complain about how strict my childhood was, but I really was blessed. I have many fabulous memories of fun, special times with my family.

There were so many things my parents did to make birthdays special! I was homeschooled through third grade, and each year on our birthday, my Mom would give us the day off from school. We would go to a museum or get to play outside all day or do special projects - something to make the day extra-ordinary. Also, on our birthday, my Dad would wake us up early and take us to McDonald's: just the birthday girl/boy and my Dad. We hardly ever went to McDonald's and we would hardly ever get our Dad to ourselves (there were four of us) - so it was a huge treat. Something we continue to this day is that the birthday person gets to pick what we have for dinner and the type of cake my Mom makes. The birthday person sits at the head of the table and eats off of the "You are Special" red plate (I think it's a blue "celebrate" plate now since the movers broke the red one on the way from Madison).

My most distinct birthday memory was when I turned ten. I think it was one of the last times my Dad did the birthday breakfast at McDonald's (I would get the hotcakes - no sausage - every year...it really meant I'd grown up when I could finish all three). We were sitting at one of the tables, my dad was on the booth side, I was on the swivel-chair side, and my Dad was talking about how grown-up I was getting. I was super excited because it was the first year I was in double digits. He said that there were two different presents that Mom and he had decided I was old enough to have this year. First, because I was growing up, I wouldn't be spanked any longer and would instead be grounded if I misbehaved (doesn't sound like a positive since it was dealing with punishment - but you have no idea how great it was) AND I didn't have to drink milk with dinner any more! The orange glass filled with milk each night at dinner was the bane of my existence and made me dread dinner-time each day, so to not have to deal with that pretty much made the next eight years of my life the best ever.

The other birthday related memory my parents created was also really neat. I prayed to accept Christ as my Savior on May 31, 1985 (a night I still can clearly remember). Each year my family would not only celebrate our birth-birthdays, we would also celebrate our spiritual birthdays. We would have a special dinner and visit Vine and Branches to pick out a book or cassette tape for our spiritual birthday present. I was collecting these book and tape combos where you would listen to the tape and turn the page when you heard the beep (I wonder were those are now!). Each one was a different Bible story. Not only was the birthday celebration a great reminder of the decision I'd made, it also made me evaluate if I was growing in my faith as my birthdays were counting that I was getting older in my faith.

I feel extremely loved when I think back on birthdays and other memories in which my parents really went out of their way to make my childhood special...but I also feel nervous that I won't be able to make the same impression on my kids someday. My parents were amazing and I wonder how they came up with all the different things they did....was there a book or a class or something? They really put a lot of thought into how our family worked and I guess I am just realizing that all of my memories weren't an accident but were planned with meaning, intention, and foresight. That's pretty cool.

So yeah, birthdays, family memories, traditions....maybe I should start a list of stuff I'd like to do with my kids someday....