How do you celebrate birthdays?

So today is my birthday. I'm a St Paddy's day baby which means everyone celebrates this day. Maybe that's one reason I'm not more into celebrating birthdays. Especially my birthday. Which is funny since my mom is huge into birthdays. She insists on celebrating both hers and everyone else's. She'll bring cake and balloons to my work, she'll offer to host a party, she will do anything to acknowledge the big day.

But for me, the ideal is to have a quite night at home with my family, maybe with a nice bottle of wine and some Indian food that has been delivered. I don't get a lot of time to relax so that tends to be what I want to do when given the option. But I feel bad as my selected way to celebrate I sort of impose on D. I always ask him what he wants to do for his birthday but never proactively look to plan anything big. I think I may be unfairly assuming he'd like what I like. But it's also hard because I don't really know what he'd really enjoy as an alternative. He always plays it cool but maybe he secretly wants a big party?

It was also recently the Pepper's birthday. We decided to throw her a big party at the park on Saturday and it was a huge success. It was also a lot of work but she loved it, we got to see a lot of our friends, and everyone had a great time. It's not hard for me to imagine celebrating the Pepper because I know she'll enjoy it. I know what she likes; I know what she'll have fun with. And while it's work it's straight forward. So that also makes all the hard work rewarding.

How do you celebrate birthdays? Any special family traditions?

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Christmas traditions

This is D and mine's seventh Christmas together and we've managed to develop some of our own Christmas traditions. These are things that make the holiday feel like Christmas to us. We don't always get to enjoy all of them due to travel and such, but we do what we can to keep up the Christmas spirit:

• Christmas cookies: This is one I got from my dad's family. My grandmother would always make sugar cookies, and then we'd do epic decorating sessions. And when I say epic I mean paintbrushes were involved. My dad even used tweezers one year to individually place sprinkles. The funny thing is that the recipe I think just came from the side of a Crisco can, but they are our cookies and we try to do them each year.
• Norwegian meatballs: This one came from D's family. His mother's family is Norwegian so one of their family recipes are these delicious little meatballs. The first Christmas D and I spent together we made the recipe for a pot luck with our neighbors and they were a huge success. Since then, they've become a Christmas staple.
• Eggnog: It's just not Christmas without a little eggnog and brandy :)
• Opening presents one-at-a-time:  We like to hand out gifts slowly and watch people open each one. I've spent Christmas with families where everyone opens presents all at once and I found it chaotic, and over so quickly. Spacing it out means every gift can be enjoyed and appreciated.
• Watching Elf: This is our favorite Christmas movie. It's feel good, appropriate for all ages, and everyone seems to like it. Increase the fun by using the bonus features after the movie is finished to do a carol sing-a-long.

And spending Christmas with each of my parents means a different thing. With my mom, there are always Christmas crackers and therefore everyone is in little paper crowns. With my dad, he's all about getting everyone (adults included) toys as presents. This means Christmas day is usually spent playing with things like little remote helicopters or nerf guns.

What are your Christmas traditions?

Photo of the Pepper from our early Xmas this year with my mom.

Christmas Cards?

Do you send out Christmas cards? I never have. When I was younger I felt I didn't need to since my mother's epic holiday news letter made me feel that everyone heard from me. And even when D and I got married and formed our own family unit, I still didn't feel the urge. But now that we have the Pepper, I'm regretting not putting something together this year. I can't explain this sudden urge to participate in this tradition. What is it about having a child that makes me want to share? Maybe it's knowing that she'll change so much between this year and next and wanting to document that somehow. Maybe it's feeling the need for holiday traditions. Whatever it is, I think I'll have to find a way to schedule it into my holiday prep next year.

Then the question becomes, photo or newsletter format? I like the idea of both having a picture but also sharing family news. Though making it also concise is a challenge. At least I have plenty of time to figure it out :)

Update: the night after i wrote this post I had a dream I received hundreds of Christmas cards in the mail.

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