How Did I End Up Here?!?

In my family, birthday's are special, family events. As a young child, birthday celebrations were a time for my grandparents, parents and sibilings to celebrate with food and gifts. I attended the birthday parties of lots of school friends, but it never occured to me to invite outsiders to my birthday celebration. I imagine if we had asked to invite friends, my parents would have had no problem with it, but none of us ever needed that.....family was always enough!

Birthday celebrations always happened on the day of your birthday....even if it was during the week and on a school night. The family would gather for a special meal (menu chosen by the birthday girl or boy) and presents which would be followed closely by cake and ice cream.

This is a picture of me on my 6th birthday...please notice how happy I am about the Captain and Tennielle album I've just unwrapped! That's my Misser Sisser beside me......like I said, we were never apart. That's also my Grandma Cook's hand and my Grandpa Cook's legs. [I'll save the discussion of my unique sense of fashion for another blog.....]

Every year I would choose the same meal for my birthday dinner. Barbequed weiners, mashed potatoes and green beans. Just 2 weeks ago my mom made this meal for me when I was there for Labor Day weekend because I wouldn't be back to visit again before my birthday......yummy!

The family birthday dinner tradition hasn't changed in my almost 37 years of life.......so, it's hard to believe that for the past six years my birthday has turned into this:

The first time I had a weekend full of events for my birthday, it was a joke. I had gotten tired of trying to work with everyone's schedule, so I planned where I would be throughout my birthday weekend and printed a "Schedule of Events" on the back of my birthday invitations. People could join me any time throughout the weekend, whenever their schedule permitted.

It was such a hassle-free way to accommodate as many friend's schedules as possible and was so successful I've been doing it ever since. I often wonder what would happen if I went back to just one night out for my birthday.....but I doubt I'll be finding out anytime soon.

So many of my friends are like family to me, I guess it's not such a stretch from how I celebrate my birthday when I'm with family to how I celebrate when I'm with friends.......it just lasts a bit longer!