Merry Birthday!

My parents were both born in the summer, Dad in mid June and Mom at the end of July. No holidays to compete with, no one else in the family with a birthday close to theirs. Things did not work out nearly so well for us kids! My brother and sister share a birthday in early March but at least there is no holiday to compete with.

I got a double whammy. I was born on the same day as the daughter of my mother's best friend. That I really didn't mind so much, it was kind of cool to share your birthday with a friend. Trouble is, we were both born in mid December.

My parents waited a long time for me to come along and they always tried to make my birthdays special. The Christmas tree was never brought home until after my day, there were always presents and cake; my gifts were always wrapped in birthday paper. I don't really think I missed out on anything as a kid because of the unfortunate timing of my birth.

You'd think that having a December birthday myself that I would have shown some consideration to my kids. B arrived the day after my 20th birthday. Bean was due the following year on his birthday! Right from the very start she let us know she would always do things in her own good time and she waited until Christmas day to arrive.

With a Christmas birthday it was impossible to wait to put up the tree so tradition changed and the tree went up shortly after Thanksgiving. There were a couple of years that I let them have individual birthday parties with their friends but for the most part they got a family party together on the weekend closest to B's birthday. Some years he had to wait a few days, but Bean has always received her birthday gifts early. They received birthday cards but often their gifts were wrapped in Christmas paper.

Having already celebrated Bean's birthday I've blown it once or thrice and wished her Merry Christmas before Happy Birthday on her day. A sure way for a mother to remain in the dog house for a full year!

As if three December birthdays weren't enough, with my marriage to John there were three more holiday birthdays to celebrate. Starting on my birthday and then every seven days thereafter we have his sister Ann's, sister Marie's and then John's in early January. Add Jae, my best friend and her two sons and we celebrate ten birthdays near the holidays!

These days with everyone's work schedules and visits to their in-laws sides of the family to plan around we have one combined get together where we celebrate both birthdays and Christmas.

Merry Birthday! Happy Christmas!


Look for special birthday posts on the 17th and 25th.



This was written for part 1 of the 86th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy: The other Holiday Happenings; to be hosted by Jasia at Creative Gene.

Thanks for the poster fM!