Our family never does anything half way. We’re those wacky folks that either have nothing going on or EVERYTHING going on all at once. Case in point: This weekend we celebrated my father’s 80th birthday, our daughter’s National Charity League Presentation and Mother’s Day.
Everything or nothing. We are weird that way.
Honestly with all the events (and as a consequence all the details involved in implementing said events) I felt a bit overwhelmed. My “to do” list seemed endless and I kind of wondered if all the effort was worth it. Sometimes the practical side of me puts a damper on the fun side of me. The time, effort and money involved in celebrations can swing my pendulum to the side of “just skip it” (or, if I’m honest, the “OK, I’ll do it, but it’s an awful lot of work” side of the fun pendulum).
But this weekend I remembered why celebrating life is important. Essential, even.
Sunday evening our family celebrated my dad’s birthday at a park overlooking the Pacific. It was BEAUTIFUL but windy. Mom bought Dad a cake and 80 individual candles, but because of the wind, Mom decided to skip the candles. They would just blow out anyway, she figured, and besides, she’d forgotten matches.
Dad wouldn’t let the candle issue rest. Determined to get all 80 candles lit, he asked every single passerby for matches or a lighter, much to my mom’s chagrin. I guess he figured that after 80 years he’s entitled to celebrate his birthday any darn way he wanted, plus my dad knows how to make the simple things in life really, really fun.
Finally, Dad found someone with a lighter, then 18 year old Ashton and her 2 1/2 year old niece put the candles on his cake. It was adorable watching the cousins work together to make Granddaddy’s day special. Then the candles – all 80 of them- had to be lit. So mom and JP went to work lighting, while the rest of us encircled the cake, shielding it from the wind. We couldn’t even take it out of the box for fear that the candles would blow out. Of course, this did raise the slightly dangerous issue of setting the box on fire, which we quickly determined as worth the risk.
Have you seen a cake with 80 lit candles lately? It was like a giant chocolate inferno.
Finally, our whole family belted out “Happy Birthday” while the candles blazed. The look on my dad’s face said it all – it was a moment of pure joy.
And love.
Sometimes in the business of life, we can wonder if the time we spend making things “special” really matters. Despite our good intentions, it’s easy to take the path of least resistance. The date night we promised to spend with our spouse seems too expensive to be worth it. The special dinner for our child is just too complicated on a week night. The card we meant to send a friend lays without a stamp on our kitchen counter.
I’m a practical girl at heart. I realize that not everyday can, or should, be special. But every once in awhile, life gives us a reason to celebrate. In these all-too-rare moments, let’s throw practicality to the wind, light some candles and celebrate with abandon!
Thanks, Donna. I’ll try to light more candles and save a little less money. Good to see your parents. Tell them I said “Hi” (if they remember me….) and “Happy Birthday!” to your dad.
Thanks Jim. And of course I’ll tell them Hi! They will love it! 🙂
I loved this, and just loved the photos. Sometimes my husbands birthday falls on Thanksgiving. He said that he has had pumpkin pie with candles on it several times. Hmmmmm… his favorite dessert is cheesecake. Over the years, I have either made it, or bought it for his birthday even if it fell on Thanksgiving. Your blog also reminded me of the time we were having friends over for the 4th of July. People could eat inside or outside. I was just fretting, and trying to make everything perfect for outside. My husband kept telling me that everything looked great and, not to worry about it. I kept worrying about it. It turns out that everybody was late due to a tie up on the freeway. It was almost dark when our friends came. And, of course no one ate outside.Best laid plans, I should have listened to my husband. How often do we say that? Later, after the fireworks, we were eating ( make your own sundaes). I noticed that the peanut m & m bowl was not full. I brought it over to where a lot of us ladies were chatting, and filled up the bowl , and set it down on the table. My friend Cheryl said, “What did you do that for?” I could not stop giggling. Needless to say we finished off that bowl of peanut m & ms, and the rest of the bag as well. Best laid plans? This was way better than that.