Making a big deal out of birthdays.

I LOVE birthdays. I think it's because I have so many great memories of birthday parties from my childhood. My parents and siblings did a great job making me feel extra special that day and throwing my a fun, themed birthday party. When I was turned 6 I had a "Princess Party" where we all dressed up in princess costumes and my dad made everyone crowns to wear. We had a very fancy tea party on some of my moms best dishes.. and it was the BEST. Another year, when I turned 7, we had a "Camping" themed birthday party where my dad made me a very special cake and we camped outside in tents. Because of this, I have pretty high expectations for birthdays.  

There are many different ways people interpret and celebrate their birthdays. Some people have "Birthday Month", other have "Birthday Week" and some people treat their birthday just like any ordinary day of the year. 

Let's start with one of the extremes... the "Ordinary Day" extremes, also known as the "Scott" birthday celebrators. Let me preface this...After my sisters birthday, she had a conversation with my dad that I have also had with him in the past...
My dad always says things like "your birthday is just another day". When he said this to her, she argued and said no it's not, and she likes to always do something special or celebrate all day.
She did some serious thinking about this apparently, because she came up with a theory...
If you have ever sat first class on a plane, your birthday is probably not that big of a deal. If you have eaten a steak that costs over $50 for "no reason", you probably don't think your birthday is a big deal.
However... if these AREN'T things you do on a regular basis, you probably DO go all-out on your birthday and try to make it as special as you can because... being fancy isn't exactly something you just DO on a normal day.

On the other hand...I have found that if your name is TREVOR or KELSEY, you REALLY love your birthday. You love your birthday more than even the average-really-excited person loves their birthday. These kinds of people go out of their way to let you know their birthday in many different conversations, but ESPECIALLY in the first initial conversation you ever have with them. If you are casually talking about how you love a certain restaurant or how your favorite sports team won, they ALWAYS find a way to bring it up. Example: "Oh did you watch the game? Great game. The score was 79 right? Oh weird, that's how many days until my birthday!!!" 
(we all know these people... trust me, I know more than one)

 

I consider myself to in the middle/excited side of birthdays (like I said, I have pretty high expectations although I don't expect everyone to care as much as I do). Bryan and I recently celebrated our birthdays and it got me thinking... I LOVE making big deals out of holidays, even the small ones. However, it is really hard to be excited for your own birthday. It is much easier to be excited for someone else's birthday (i.e. your BFF, significant other, etc.) 

As I'm getting older, I was afraid my birthday was going to be completely pushed to the wayside this year. LUCKILY I have such a great husband who went out of his way to get me extremely thoughtful gifts, and made my annual themed birthday cake that I feel is essential to make it through the next year. 

Anyways, being 25 is pretty great so far... except it's making me think of all these big life decisions that I don't want to think about yet. But I guess that comes with growing up and becoming mature and, in the words of the young, hip youth..."adulting".