While most of us have no problem making holidays and birthdays special and festive, sometimes there are competing events that make it a little more challenging. One example is a birthday that falls on a holiday. My child’s birthday sometimes falls on Easter, as it does this year. In order to keep the birthday from competing with the holiday and vice versa, we try to plan something special for another day.
I felt bad at first, because I thought my daughter would be disappointed, but in fact, she’d rather celebrate on a different day than celebrate her birthday during a holiday. We have a tradition where each person gets to pick a favorite meal, usually dinner, on his or her birthday. The birthday girl also gets to choose the flavors of the cake and ice cream. Mom then cooks the special foods, bakes the cake, and decorates in that person’s favorite theme or color. It’s kind of hard to do all that with a holiday in progress, and since we eat turkey on Easter, she’d miss out on her special meal. I offered to make her favorite, but she didn’t want to change tradition.
We usually plan the birthday celebration for before the holiday, but my daughter decided that she’d have her birthday dinner and celebration next weekend, so her friend will be able to join her. I asked if she was sure she wanted to wait that long, and she said, “It’s cool, as long as you take me shopping and to the salon” (obviously, I’m talking about one of my teenagers).
So, Saturday while the boiled eggs are cooling so we can color them, I’ll probably be helping my darling daughter pick out make up and jeans. She also wants me to take her for a manicure, but I’m thinking that should wait until next week too. Even though she’s oh-so-grown-up, I know she won’t be able to resist coloring eggs. It would be a shame to ruin her manicure with egg dye.