Sunday, January 3, 2016

This year's birthday was a throwback to high school

So, I have a December birthday, and much as my parents tried to make it a special day growing up, I learned real quickly that having a December birthday sucks. My extended family frequently did the birthday-Christmas combo gift, no one could make it to my birthday parties past the age of ...eh... 10. The only people that could show up to my 21st celebration was my big sister and my then-20-year-old boyfriend (who later became my husband, thanks honneeeeyy!). I gave up on trying to celebrate my birthday in high school. The nice part is Tyler is also a December baby, so he and I celebrate together each year. For the past few years we've celebrated with fancy grown-up dinners or lavish trips to fabulous locations, and for our three years in Kuwait our amazing Kuwait family threw us awesome themed parties.

This year was familiar but resembled my birthdays from my teenage years as opposed to that of a 33-year-old.


The day started with a little breakfast date with my precious niece while she had dinner in America. We were practicing our silly faces.

Then the hubs and I went to a movie-and-a-lunch by going to see a Lux showing of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.


Lux is, I assume, short for DEluxe because we got to sit in cushy recliner seats, got waited on at appointed times during the movie, and Tyler got to upgrade his complimentary popcorn and soda to a special commemorative Star Wars popcorn tin and large soda cup.


Tyler was REALLY excited for the movie before it started, and my gift to him for my birthday was I ACTUALLY LIKED A STAR WARS MOVIE! I spent the week leading up to my birthday watching the original trilogy to study up for this new one and see if maybe, if I actually watched and paid attention, I could get hooked on Star Wars and go into the new movie just as excited as my husband. That plan didn't work, but JJ Abrams helped me to see the plot-hole-riddled light and I am actually now asking to see the movie AGAIN!

It's a birthday miracle.

Continuing the birthday-from-my-wonder-years trend, I had to leave Tyler behind while I went to wait tables. On my birthday. Until 1 in the morning because my managers didn't care that it was my birthday...ok, that's not fair to them. I didn't tell them it was my birthday, but my past has taught me that they wouldn't have cared anyway.

Here's to a more Australian kind of birthday next year.

Vicarously yours,
















PS. I would be remiss to leave out the fact that our amazing Australian friends actually gave me a bit of an Australian birthday this year, just a few days early. They were hosting a Christmas cookout and I arrived first while Tyler was at work and they surprised me with a birthday cupcake and a chorus of happy birthday. In Australia, the birthday girl gets three cheers after the birthday song is sung, and then cuts the cake. I'm not sure if it is an Australian tradition or just one for this particular family but I hilariously messed up the cake cutting.


They handed me the knife and, since it was a cupcake, I thought it was a joke when they said, "Cut the cake!" I laughed and pantomimed cutting the cupcake into teeny pieces for everyone at the party and then put the knife on the table and devoured the yummy goodness.

When Tyler arrived for the party (I'd already left because I had to work), they sang to him and also handed him the knife but explained their tradition: the birthday boy cuts the cake and if the knife touches the plate, he has to kiss the person next to him! I didn't know about that part, and I just laughed at how anticlimactic my "cake cutting" was the first time around! haha! oops.

1 comment:

  1. You had another movie premiere birthday- your 16th, Prince of Egypt. Remember that? All those pizza...

    ReplyDelete