On Celebrating Holidays in a Non-Standard Household

Today  is my birthday and I am reflecting yet again on how holidays in our household are not celebrated in the standard storybook fashion. For starters, I like to tell people my age is 0x2E and I’m looking forward to turning 0x30* in two years. I am taking the day off but stopped by work today for a visit and spent a frantic few minutes helping out in getting some network problems straightened out.

For my present from my husband I presented him with an order form several weeks ago for two nightshirts from a small company that I like. The shirts came in, and I promptly grabbed one leaving the other one for him to wrap. I finally got him to wrap it tonight and had fun telling him what surprise it was and how it was exactly what I wanted. We did go out for dinner tonight so no one would have to cook and that was a nice change.

When we got back from dinner I baked my birthday cake, with everyone in the household asking when it was going to be finished so they could go to bed early. My Mom is here visiting and suffering form jet lag due to a 3 hour time difference, so she has been ready to sack out by 9:00 in the evening, if she can hold out that long. Meanwhile, my son is clearing a space in our living room/my office/spare bedroom so we have space for a Christmas tree and is busy setting up the artificial tree and the lights.

I finished up the cake and had a very off tune Happy Birthday sung to me and I opened my presents. All in all, it was quite a lovely birthday and I’m kind of glad I don’t necessarily have birthdays and holidays quite like other people do. I certainly end up with better stories to tell. Just don’t ask me about my 16th birthday. 😉

*My age in hexadecimal, definitely a comp-sci, techie type of joke.