My Favorite Holiday

For those of you that may not know, my birthday is my favorite holiday! Why, you might ask? Well, I’ll be happy to tell you. It’s certainly not for gifts, I have no expectation that Ernie (or anyone else) will buy me something and most years I actually prefer that Ernie not get me something. (I stress about money too much to enjoy gifts that are paid for out of the joint checking account). I really don’t need a party- although that’s super fun and some years I do that too! Mostly I just love people to tell me Happy Birthday. I don’t mind telling people in the grocery store or at the salon that it’s my birthday, I’m pretty comfortable announcing it wherever I go because I like it when people say, “It’s your birthday today? Well, Happy Birthday!”. Even if they are complete strangers.

In case you’re wondering, this birthday has been very low-key. Ernie wasn’t able to make it home for dinner because of problems at work. Totally okay with me. I went to the gym this morning (highlight of my day pretty much every day) and then Max and I went to Walmart. In the afternoon I got a babysitter and took the birthday money that Mom and Dad sent me and got a pedicure. I ordered pizza for dinner because it’s my birthday and I don’t want to cook. We ate on paper plates because it’s my birthday and I don’t want to clean up either. While I would prefer that Ernie were home with me tonight, I am also totally okay with putting the kids to bed and watching the episode of LOST that I haven’t seen yet. It’s been a really good birthday.

I was thinking today about birthday’s past. There have been some really great years, but the one I thought about today was the year that I turned 19. I moved to Athens, Georgia a few weeks before my birthday and I decided to throw myself a birthday party (this is something I am prone to do) and invite everyone from Institute so I could make some friends. I was already in love with Kitty and we were on the BFF path of destiny, and Kitty decided to bring her older brother, who I had not met. That would be Ernie. Ernie liked me from the get go. I was not super impressed with him. Luckily it didn’t take long for me to change my mind. So my thought today was (and this has seriously never occurred to me before) that my birthday is the anniversary of when Ernie and I first met!

And here’s how the kids celebrated with me today:

• Little Ernie unloaded and then loaded the dishwasher without telling me.
• Nigel insisted that everyone tell me why they loved me at dinner, because it was my birthday.
• Emmaline picked roses for me from the front yard.
• Max kept kissing me and telling me that he loved me (although he does this every day, I’ll pretend it was for my awesome birthday :))

Best birthday gifts ever.