It's My Birthday!

Over the years (mostly since I turned 30y), certain people have poked fun at me for how I am about my birthday. But, it goes back to my childhood. Growing up, there were six kids in my house, and we didn't have much money. We literally had government cheese, etc, delivered to our front door every month for a while. Anyway, my parents (dad & smom) did what they could to make each child's birthday special. Half of us were summer babies, so we never even got the cupcakes-at-school thing. We *did* however get a special breakfast (my favorite was pancakes shaped in the letters of my name), celebration w/friends (my favorite was a surprise party for my 13th that my parents & best-friend-at-the-time threw for me), dinner (dad's fried chicken, etc), and cake (chocolate w/lemon filling). Of course, it wasn't WHAT I got for my birthday, it was the FEELINGS I had during that day. I was special and loved. That's hard to do in a family as large as ours... but my parents pulled it off, for each and every one of us on our special day. These days, my birthday is a day to remember the good times of my childhood, and to celebrate my own accomplishments... professionally & personally.