Birthday Traditions

Friday night we celebrated Benjamin's 18th birthday.  We don't have elaborate birthday traditions in our family but we always celebrate and look forward to birthdays.  The birthday child always has the option of breakfast in bed and often gets to choose the menu.  On his special day his siblings do all of his animal and house chores for him.  Depending on the child he sometimes has a birthday party with friends, or a birthday party with cousins, or just a fun activity with immediate family.  We bake a birthday cake, and sometimes the birthday child actually wants to make and decorate his cake all on his own. Occasionally one of the kids will request a birthday pie or apple crisp instead.  I think we even had a birthday watermelon once for our Dad's birthday. Often we have a special dinner that is a favorite of the birthday child.

Not long after Jerry and I were married we were browsing in a Pier One Imports store and found a colorful plate and cup that both of us loved.  We decided to buy it and call it our "special plate" and use it for special occasions in our family.  The special plate is used at dinnertime for the birthday child, and even grandparents and special visitors to our home have occasionally been honored to use the "special plate" at dinnertime.  Benjamin used the special plate last night for his special birthday dinner.  This will be his last birthday dinner at home for two years.  We will miss him but are so grateful for his desire to serve a mission. 

One of our most treasured birthday traditions is opening cards from the grandparents with the whole family.  Grandma and Grandpa Winters always send homemade cards along with balloons which is a hit with the younger children.  Grandpa and Grandma Vance have a real knack for finding super fun cards that often sing to you.  And Grandpa Vance is the star of every card opening session.  Why?  Because he writes "Roses are red" poems in every birthday card to children and their spouses and grandchildren too.  Years and years of birthdays and he keeps coming up with new and creative poems to make us laugh.  We try to keep all the cards in the childrens' keepsake boxes so that they will always remember their Grandpa and his poems.  The birthday child looks forward to special phone calls from grandparents on both sides as well.

In the March 1986 Ensign (no author mentioned) it says,

"Family traditions are like spiritual and emotional cement in the foundation of a happy home. They create fond memories, and these memories bond us together as nothing else can."

I have fond memories of birthday traditions in my own home when I was a child.  My mother used to bake fun cakes in neat shapes.  One year I had a cake shaped like a princess.  I remember one of my brothers having a rocking horse cake.  And for those who wanted she would always make the most delicious angel food cake with lemon glaze.  When we were younger we enjoyed birthday parties with our friends with traditional games like pin the tail on the donkey and musical chairs.  As we got older we were sometimes treated to a dinner out at a restaurant.  I always felt so special and important on my birthday.  And still do.  My parents make me feel loved every day, but I can always count on them remembering my birthday and taking special care to let me know that they are so glad that I was and will always be their daughter.