Hey it is almost 1/9/19….my birthday. Some people don’t care to make their birthdays a big deal. Me…I’d love to celebrate the whole day! I think birthdays are important. It’s the day God sent us into the world to do whatever it is we are suppose to accomplish in our lifetime before He calls us home. I believe we are meant not only to worship Him with all of our heart and soul, but to touch as many people as we can along the way. I fail to be that light quite often. Just today, I can think of three instances that I could have done better. One with my mom and two at work.

And that is the beauty of living another day. We get a fresh start. My new year starts at 3:00 tomorrow afternoon according to my mother because that is the hour I was born.

Perfect birthdays that stand out in my memory, … not the whole day of them, but small snippets.

When I was ten, my mom made me a Barbie cake. There was an actual Barbie standing and her dress was the cake decorated with colorful icing.

My twelfth birthday, I had a lot of girls that slept over and I think that’s the first time I remember playing Truth or Dare.

My seventeenth birthday, John gave me a small brown teddy bear that I still have. He brought it to school to give me.

My twenty-fourth, John’s parents bought me a very small rectangle cake with 24 candles on it and sang happy birthday to me in our small duplex kitchen and then they took us out to eat.

For my thirty-second birthday, John bought me a Queen Ann bed. I loved it. He picked it out himself, but sent me to the furniture store for my approval before they delievered it.

My fortieth, he bought me an office chair for my classroom and I can still see him smiling, rolling it down the hall to my classroom. It had one of those tall backs to it. I kept it for the longest time.

Smiling because they pulled off the surprise!

Somewhere around either my thirty-ninth or forty-first birthday, John and Cam surprised me with a cake and ice cream party at our home. He had invited the families over for dessert after our dinner. The picture I have of him and Cam smiling so full of joy at me is one of my favorites and hangs in my hallway.

Perhaps it might seem as if all my happy memories of my birthday left with John, but that isn’t true. I’ve had several birthdays that have been memorable since he passed. One of my favorite was last year when my friends surprised me with a party at Fisherman’s Market. It wasn’t on my actual birthday, but they had invited friends to come celebrate with me. I had a cake and gifts!

For the last two years, my friend, Arlene, has taken me out to eat. One birthday, I called and invited friends out to eat and we went to a movie. Saturday birthdays are the best!

Yes, I like celebrating birthdays! This will be my twelfth birthday without John and I’d give anything for a do over day. He never wanted a fuss made about his birthday, but he so enjoyed giving sweet gifts. That was one of his love languages.

So when I awake tomorrow, I’ll check Facebook for ‘Happy Birthday’ messages, my class will sing me the Happy Birthday song, my teaching friends will give me hugs, and my family will call, and my son will make me smile when he calls. Someone may remember to ask me out for dinner and I’ll end the day like I began…with a smile on my face, a slight heartache missing John, but feeling blessed that God has given me another day to work toward whatever he has given me this life to achieve. Birthdays….yes…it is a day to celebrate!