Happy Birthday to me!
I turn 26 this weekend and in light of this, I've been thinking about birthdays and why we celebrate them and how we celebrate them. Growing up we had a tradition, on your birthday you got to pick what was for dinner. It could be your favorite homemade meal or any fast-food you wanted (fast food was a rare "treat" in our house for much of my childhood) or I think even hometown buffet was an option(eating out anywhere else wasn't something we did- EVER). I typically opted for McDonalds and then, as I outgrew happy meals, Pizza Hut. My mom would bake your favorite cake, or once we discovered ice-cream cakes, you could pick one out. And after dinner and cake we might have a present or two. And that was our birthday. It is a simple tradition that I happen to love. I want to carry it on and keep birthdays small and simple. I see many parents overwhelmed by the need to throw big elaborate parties (each one more extravagant than the last) and spending a fortune on one day