A Birthday Re-Cap

My birthday was on Tuesday, and if your educated in the ways of calendaring, you might deduce that I'm a New Year's baby.

(No, my parents didn't get any cool presents).

You're probably wondering how I spent my birthday, so I will tell you.

For the past eight or so years, I have spent New Year's Eve with my in-laws. We eat, play games, and whatever else we feel like.

When my in-laws asked me what I wanted for my birthday this year, I said I felt bad telling them what to get me because it made me feel demanding. My mother-in-law said I wasn't demanding, so I told her that, in that case, I wanted my gift wrapped in pink Dora paper with a purple bow, and I wanted my birthday card to have a sentimental message from my brother-in-law, Riley.

(The sentimental message is a recurring joke that probably only I remember. Last year, my niece hacked Riley's facebook account and wrote a lovely verse from him to her on her birthday. I then commented, "I can't wait for MY sentimental birthday wish from Riley!" And Riley? He doesn't do sentimental birthday wishes. So it's funny, you see?)

Even though I was only joking, I knew my mother-in-law would go through with it all because she's awesome like that. Sure enough, there was a present wrapped in pink Dora paper with a purple bow waiting for me when I arrived on New Year's Eve. I wondered about the birthday card, though. My mother-in-law is good, but not even she could extract a sentimental birthday wish for me from Riley.

She did her best, though, and I opened my card to find this:

Brittany,

Do me favor, I couldn't think of anything to write, so please pretend that you're reading something really touching, maybe even wipe a tear, and then look at me and say, "That is so beautiful. I didn't know you could write like that." Then if anyone asks to see the card, refuse and tell them it's too personal. Thanks, I owe you one.

Happy Birthday!

Riley

Close enough.

After the midnight celebration of the new year, we celebrated my birthday for about 15 minutes and then everyone went home. This, too, is the usual tradition.

We are tired and old.

My mom was kind enough to watch Nicky and Daisy the afternoon of my birthday so Scotty and I could go out for a while. We went to Cafe Rio for a late lunch and then to Target to exchange some shoes. The shoes ended up being on clearance, so we were able to get some money back. They had tons of shoes on clearance so we bought eight pairs! It was such a rush! We then went to Kohls and bought Scotty some pants with my Kohls Cash. We reminisced about our past lives - when we could go to a place like Target or Kohls with no kids any day, any time. Running errands without kids is now considered an appropriate date or birthday outing. Things have sure changed!

It wasn't all errands though. We also went to see Les Miserables, which I have conflicting opinions about. We got to go for free because Scotty's work gave us a gift card, and we got free popcorn for my birthday via e-mail coupon! Yay! This is another thing that has changed in the past ten years - we used to be willing to pay money to go on dates.

Even though we've become cheap and lame, I was rather happy with my birthday. Now I'm off to accomplish something amazing before I turn 30. Not sure what that something is, but I'll let you know when I figure it out.