Birthdays!
What's your favorite memory from a birthday (yours or someone else's)? This could be a favorite experience, gift, interaction, cake, anything! It can be more than one!
I'll go first.
My favorite memory of my own birthday was in high school when my friends surprised me with a grocery bag filled with my favorite treats (various sour candies! XD!). For some reason, it made me feel seen.
A funny memory of my birthday was when my family treated me to IHOP for breakfast and later on that day my friends surprised me and took me to IHOP... the same one!
My favorite birthday memory in general was my significant other's. I got us tickets to a comedy show in Madison Square Garden/a weekend in NY (we were living in the west coast at the time). NYC in December: walking in Central Park, bars, donuts & pizza, good public transportation, making a little snow man, walking.
Oh, and you could also state if you had a horrible birthday experience.
My child's 3rd birthday. We got the perfect present that we had denied we would be getting them.
When the present was opened, the response was "Oh my god, I don't know what to say."
This was followed by a spontaneous, unprompted sprint across the room to give Mom and Dad hugs and say thank you.
I don't know if I'll ever experience such a wonderful display of childish joy, wonder, and gratefulness ever again. I'm thankful for even having the opportunity.
I've got three:
For my 10th or 11th birthday I kayaked with my dad from the Newport Back Bay out to the Pacific. We intended to go a couple miles out from there, but the trip he and my (twin) brother did the day before led to choppy water, so we at least just paddled out a bit to be on the open ocean for a few minutes. We got a bunch of frozen burritos and shoved them in the kayak's storage area, and just munched on them cold as we went (it's all pre-cooked anyway).
My 21st birthday: My dad wanted to come up from San Diego to visit us, and decided to do his century: 131 miles in eleven hours, with my twin and I catching up to him for the last six or so miles. We just hung out for the next day while he recovered and prepared for his return trip (first 100 miles by train, then 30 miles back up the mountain).
And my 29th: My twin and I went to his fiancee's house (we all still live(d) with our families) for a little get-together, and we got the results of a twin genetics test. We'd been told we were fraternal twins, but people also thought we looked identical, and she decided to settle it by buying a test. I also learned that my hair had probably been falling out for a few years when we reviewed the video of us blowing out the cake (this was 2019, months before COVID), but that was just telling me it's time to shave my head like I'd always wanted to do.
I don't think i have any particularly happy or unhappy birthday memories from my childhood. I usually celebrated them with my close family and that was it, they weren't too special.
My happiest birthday memory is actually last year. Friends treated me to a Cuban restaurant. It was a nice and thoughtful choice. And such great food.