Humor will not be tolerated!! -Portia

my roommate's birthday is two days after mine, so we have birthday week. a full week of activities and fun, and i take two days off from work.

birthday week rocks.

Marduk wrote:We always DO have a family dinner, and this we do on Sundays when everyone comes over anyways. This is how we do it for everyone in the family, including cousins, aunts and uncles, and parents. They request a favorite meal, we make sure they are mentioned in the dinner prayer, and we do a cake and singing.

Mostly this for my family as well.

I never had a friend-party while I was living at home. My mom and sister did throw a very elaborate Harry-Potter-themed thing for my 18th birthday, and krebscout did a fun little get-together for my 21st.

The only year I tried to throw a party for myself was weird because I invited friend-friends and work-friends, and they did not co-mingle very easily. Also, I tried to dress up, and did not do it quite right, so I felt self conscious the entire time.

It's interesting to hear how everyone does birthday celebrations differently (or not at all). At my house, we definitely observe birthdays but it's now more of a "pick a Sunday when we can get together for a birthday celebration" kind of thing. We still do gifts, although it's harder to remember as time goes by somehow, and Dad always picks out some special or more expensive ones. We always have the birthday person do what we call the hot seat where everyone goes around and says things that they like or admire about the birthday person or maybe share a fun story about them. And then we usually watch old home videos while eating cake.
Out of ten people in my original family (parents and kids with no in-laws), everyone except two had a different birthday month, so we're decently evenly spaced across the calendar, too.

Wisteria wrote:We always have the birthday person do what we call the hot seat where everyone goes around and says things that they like or admire about the birthday person or maybe share a fun story about them.

My in-laws do this. It's kind of a fun tradition, but it would never fly in my immediate family. Not a chance.

Marduk wrote:Tao, to counter your story, I wasn't aware that there was anyone who stopped celebrating birthdays, especially not at such a young age.

Heh, perhaps my folks got Mormons mixed around with Jehovah's Witnesses, who knows? It may have come down to fiscal matters, coupled with maturity ones, I have no idea. It really doesn't matter, except that I need to work out what my thoughts on the matter are, so as to know what path to take in the future.

Tao wrote:

Marduk wrote:Tao, to counter your story, I wasn't aware that there was anyone who stopped celebrating birthdays, especially not at such a young age.

Heh, perhaps my folks got Mormons mixed around with Jehovah's Witnesses, who knows? It may have come down to fiscal matters, coupled with maturity ones, I have no idea. It really doesn't matter, except that I need to work out what my thoughts on the matter are, so as to know what path to take in the future.

And as soon as you figure it out, you'll get married and have to rework it all out again to mesh with her thoughts.

Dragon Lady wrote:

Tao wrote:

Marduk wrote:Tao, to counter your story, I wasn't aware that there was anyone who stopped celebrating birthdays, especially not at such a young age.

Heh, perhaps my folks got Mormons mixed around with Jehovah's Witnesses, who knows? It may have come down to fiscal matters, coupled with maturity ones, I have no idea. It really doesn't matter, except that I need to work out what my thoughts on the matter are, so as to know what path to take in the future.

And as soon as you figure it out, you'll get married and have to rework it all out again to mesh with her thoughts.

There's an incentive to work it out if I ever heard one.

Dragon Lady wrote:

Tao wrote:

Marduk wrote:Tao, to counter your story, I wasn't aware that there was anyone who stopped celebrating birthdays, especially not at such a young age.

Heh, perhaps my folks got Mormons mixed around with Jehovah's Witnesses, who knows? It may have come down to fiscal matters, coupled with maturity ones, I have no idea. It really doesn't matter, except that I need to work out what my thoughts on the matter are, so as to know what path to take in the future.

And as soon as you figure it out, you'll get married and have to rework it all out again to mesh with her thoughts.

Heh heh. Funny, but true.

My mom's family doesn't have birthday parties into adulthood. I remember once my mom saying "my mom remembered my anniversary but not my birthday." Some people just don't celebrate them as much.