Celebration!

When you are a kid any holiday, birthday, yearly event and special occasions are beyond exciting.  They break routines, allow sugar induced highs and generally involve presents.  As you move from childhood into the teen years they usually involve the same excitement but instead of sugar the highs are induced in other ways.  There are not many changes between the teen years into the early twenties; in fact sometimes I believe we partied quite a bit later into the night.  It’s however moving into your late twenties and your early thirties when these celebrations lose a bit of the luster.  Our society has us believing that aging isn’t a good thing so we start to downplay birthdays and another year gone by.  I think we’re also tired of getting sore cheeks and passing out from blowing up balloons.

It all changes again when you have children.  They breathe new life back into the observations we choose to recognize with cake and streamers.  They also choose to wake you up at 5:30 in the morning on a day you promised them you’d bake a birthday cake for their grandmother.  I’m actually not sure what I was thinking telling my daughter that we A) were celebrating my mom’s birthday the next day or B) that we’d bake a cake for her.  I am usually smarter than that.  I usually wait until that day or the actual even is already happening before I start talking about it.  In retrospect it was my own fault but I was still a little crabbier with her than I normally am in the morning.

I found myself wandering around supermarket aisles yesterday getting inspired about a specific decorations and cake pans.  I am not much of a baker myself but my daughter I think would like to be the next “Cake Boss.”  It’s crazy how much the possibility of us eating cake can motivate the kids into behaving for a day.  So now we are in the process today of baking a special cake for the kid’s grandmother.  It’s actually been a lot of fun.  We’re not doing a big party or anything but going to have a little dinner get together. I find that I am not agreeing with society’s take on getting older and don’t swallow the whole “aging is bad” gig.  I am feeling more secure with myself, my position in life and my world then I ever did before.  I think that with age you can learn to appreciate those around you and what you already have instead of always seeking for more and better.  I think that it’s nice the kids have shown me that it’s important to remember to celebrate all these happy times in life.  With so many bad things happening in the world and with so much negativity it doesn’t hurt to shed light on the good times!

Happy Birthday Mommy Dearest we love you to the moon and back!!