Glimpses of Childhood.

My youngest, Guy, turned nine yesterday and birthdays and birthday parties are big for me.  Birthdays (and Christmas) are when I get to write large into my kids’ DNA how greatly they are loved, valued, cherished, seen, and celebrated. 

Just them. 

Specifically them!

On Their Day.

I base all celebrations on the way my own mother did them for us. 

Nothing huge or fancy, only time spent on loving the person.  Homemade birthday tea with homemade cake, balloons and streamers, handwritten labels on the presents with clues to their contents, and all the presents gathered in one place – sofa or laundry basket – ready for the “big reveal” in the morning.

 

We always do the same games: pin the tail on the donkey, tray and teatowel memory game, musical chairs, musical statues (even better on the trampoline), pass the parcel. When the kids were little, it was worth everything to me seeing pride glowing on their faces as they said to their friends, “My mummy and daddy are doing all the games!”

Guy turning nine, was still completely up for a party in the back garden.  Coolness came in the form of a Minecraft theme, but the essence of it was no different than every year that had gone before.

What I want my children to remember, is this:

That no matter where Life takes them
Or what It may throw at them,

Wherever they are in the world
With friends or alone,

THAT EVERY SINGLE YEAR
On their birthday,

Everything stopped.

Just for them.

So we could celebrate and be grateful

For just exacty who they are.

jsg/sept 2014