My mom was great at birthdays. She went above and beyond to make you feel special. We always started with breakfast in bed. We each had our own personal tray that was used for eating in bed on your birthday or when you were sick. You could pick ANYTHING you wanted for your birthday breakfast, even if it meant a 5am drive to McDonald’s or Mikey’s Donuts (Opelousas native over here … still my all-time favorite doughnut). She let us chose our birthday dinner, anything she cooks was available to choose, though we pretty much always chose rice and gravy of some sort. She made a birthday cake for your birthday AND another one for your party.
Feeling extra special on my birthday is such a strong memory of mine, I knew I wanted to have special birthday traditions in my family also. I make my kids a homemade birthday cake to eat for breakfast. The birthday boy or girl gets to choose a birthday takeout dinner (and I always cross my fingers they choose Chick Fil A). They get birthday treats to bring to school to share with their classes, and a birthday party.
But my favorite tradition is their birthday letter.
Each year, on the eve of their birthday, I sit down with their birthday card, and write a letter to my child. I talk about new achievements made over the last year, my favorite personality traits of theirs, and just try to remind them how much I love them. Daddy writes them a letter in the card too. Then each year, on their birthday, we take out that child’s past cards to read aloud to them, and add in the new card. Their little love buckets are overflowing on their most special day! It is by no means an original idea (courtesy of Pinterest), but it is one that I cherish and hope that my children do too!
