RevGals Friday Five Meme: Birthdays!

Jan, over at RevGals offers this Friday Five:

April is a month of family birthdays for me: Today is my mother-in-law's 80th birthday and on Sunday my third child's 26th birthday, so I am thinking about birthdays. Easter would have been my mother's 93rd birthday, but she died when she was only 72 years old.

I love to celebrate birthdays, but I know others don't like to as much. My second child doesn't care about birthdays that much.

How about you? What do you think of birthdays?


1. What are your feelings about celebrating birthdays, especially your own? I love to celebrate birthdays. Life is a gift to be celebrated. But I don't really need to make a big deal out of them. In my family we typically have a festive meal with cake or pie and gifts. Usually that meal is home cooked (or BBQ'd) although for my birthday, since I am the primary meal preparer, we do go out to one of my favorite places.

2. Do you have any family traditions about birthdays? Always includes a meal, a cake (often carrot cake, or some decadent chocolate cake, or, for my husband, banana cream pie), followed by gifts. And usually laughter as we share stories.

3. Is it easy to remember friends' and family members' birthdays? If so, how do you do it? I use to write birthdays on the calendar that hung in my kitchen and transfer the names and dates to the new yearly calendar. But, now I rarely use calendars that way. I remember most birthdays because of FaceBook. I usually know that the birthday is coming up, but FB helps me remember the exact day.

4. What was one of your favorite birthdays? (or your unhappiest?) Favorite was my 50th. I simply dreaded turning 50, and every one knew it. My kids decorated the house with balloons and streamers - completely surprising me. Then, we went out for a great meal. I know there were gifts but what I remember is the fun I had with my family that night - which really took the edge of off turning 50.

My worse birthday was the year I turned 30 because a few weeks before my birthday I had a miscarriage. It was a sad time.

5. Post anything else you want to share about birthdays, including favorite foods, songs, and/or pictures. Our favorite birthday foods include: homemade BBQ ribs (son), grilled salmon or steak (daughter), various Polish dished for my husband, that I learned to make from his mother, and Italian food at a local restaurant for me.

Comments

Jan said…
Your 30th birthday sounds so sad. I love grilled salmon and that is almost always my chosen birthday dinner. FB helps remind us of birthdays!
Wendy said…
I like the idea of celebrating birthdays because "Life is a gift to be celebrated." Nice.
I'm lovin' the BBQ ribs.

Thanks for the kind words about my Women at the Cross meditation. I think it went well...mostly an older crowd. It was most certainly something that the male pastors in this community would not of preached.

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