Tomorrow is the hubs's birthday. He will turn a quarter of a century old (the old fart). Growing up, my family always made birthdays a special day, a day where we got to make all the decisions. So once the hubs and I started dating, I took that mindset into the relationship.
The first birthday we celebrated together was his 21st birthday. As I wasn't quite 21 at the time, we decided to go a different route than club hopping (and we're not quite club hopping people). Instead, his best friends and I decided to throw him a kind of surprise party. We rented a boat and took it out on the lake and spent the day boating on the lake. It was his special day and I was going to do my best to make it extra special for him.
The next year, we spent his birthday traveling. It was the same day as my grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary party, so we were busy hanging out with them and celebrating them. We did make an effort to go eat at a place of his choosing.
Over the next years, I continued to try to make each day special. His 23rd birthday, he spent his birthday starting a new job. It was a wonderful day. He had been out of work for a month, and the fact that his job started on his birthday was the best birthday present he could have asked for. Last year was low key. We had just bought our house, so there wasn't much we wanted to do and he was okay with that. He picked a place to go out to eat and we enjoyed a nice birthday dinner.
This year, it's another crazy year. He just started a new job, and is subbing, cleaning an extra location on top of his already two locations, and he has something else going on tomorrow night. It's just a crazy week and I'm starting to think he might actually just want to chill this weekend and recover from such a crazy week. But I still want to make it a special day for him. Every year I try to make him a dessert, and every year he asks for something fruity. This year it's a lemon chiffon. So here's to making him his special dessert...
The point is, I try to make every year special for him. We argue about it. He never really had his special day growing up. His family never really made a big deal out of birthdays. They were just another day to get stuff done. As we prepare to have our own family, birthdays are going to be a big deal. Maybe not so much with presents, but it'll be a day about them. Their special day. A day with cake and balloons and their choice of food. It's just the way I was raised and the way I hope to raise our kids.
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