Birthdays

What is it about birthdays?   I looked at Google and found:

While many cultures developed birthday celebrations separately, the Egyptians were the first ones to get the party started. When Egyptian pharaohs were crowned gods, they were “birthed.” That means the first birthday celebration wasn't marking the birth of a human, but rather the birth of a god.

Well, history blurb aside, (and I'm definitely not a god!!)  what determines how a person decides to celebrate a birthday?  I've never been big on celebrations dictated to land on a certain day.  With my kids going to their dad's every other weekend, or for six weeks each summer, it wasn't the actual date that made the celebration, it was whenever we made the choice to celebrate.  My mom, on the other hand, is really big on celebrating on the actual day.  With my 64th coming up, she's making plans for dinner, a cake, and wants to know what I'll be doing.  I don't want to hurt her feelings, or bruise her need for these celebrations, but I haven't celebrated my birthday in many years. 

And that caused me to think about the past.  I was born in the summer, during a thunderstorm (which might account for my liking those kinds of storms!!) and when you're young and it falls in summer, the opportunity for birthday parties is pretty small.  Families are on vacation, kids are scattered for a lot of different reasons.  I didn't have large parties, but sometimes a couple neighbors came over.  But more often than not, it as just family.   In comparison, my sister was born in March, school in full swing, and she liked people, always had a large party.   So is my dislike for birthdays because of the whens and whys as a child?  Or maybe its a symptom left over from lousy husbands?  

Either way, just like all the other holidays, it's just another day.  Sometimes I work, sometimes I stay home and do my usual routines.  Ad sometimes I'm surprised out of the blue.  Annie, at work, surprised me with a bag of 8 different chocolate bars!  That's enough for me, I don't have expectations about presents, a fancy meal, or birthday cake.  It just isn't my thing!

Happy 64th to me!