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So: Today is my birthday. It's always a reflective time for me, and I have my little routines — and I thought it might be fun to talk about how we all like to spend our birthdays.
Personally, every year on my birthday (or as close to it as I can swing it) I take a picture of myself without makeup — I've been doing it since I was in my mid-20s. I like documenting my actual face and skin through the years, not hidden or modified by makeup. I like to go through the pictures as a slideshow, occasionally comparing different intervals (5 years apart — 10 years apart — etc). This may sound kind of harsh but thus far I've been happy with the routine (and, I guess, the way I've been aging).
I also get to eat whatever I want for my birthday, diet be damned, and I usually go for something fairly juvenile and unhealthy, e.g. a Big Mac. (For lunch today it's going to be a salami and swiss cheese sandwich, and I'm really looking forward to it.) Tonight, my husband and son will take me out. (I do like to celebrate the occasion with friends as well as just with my husband at a fancy restaurant, but I think I want it to be a tradition that the actual day-of is spent with just my husband and son somewhere chill.)
One of the traditions that is on hold for the moment is the midnight call — my parents and brother have always gotten on a conference line to call me at the stroke of midnight and sing Happy Birthday — but most nights the Griffin household is in bed long before that (see above re baby!). (Although… last night I was up late finishing Gone Girl, which felt indulgent and luxurious since I I never get to read for fun anymore!)
Readers, do you have birthday routines? What does your ideal birthday look like? Does your office recognize birthdays (parties, cake, permission to leave at a reasonable hour, etc)?
(Pictured: balloons, originally uploaded to Flickr by velkr0.)
Bonnie
Happy birthday Kat! No wonder I love your site since my birthday is tomorrow. As for traditions, I always make my husband do something he normally wouldn’t be inclined to do like go to a jazz show or dinner club. We always end up having a great time.
Senior Attorney
Happy Birthday, Kat! Many happy returns of the day!
I have taken the day off work for the past some years, which I love. And I love even more to be actually on vacation on my birthday. Mr. Senior Attorney and I went on our first cruise for my 50th, which was awesome and hard to top. This year we will be in Manhattan for a week, which will also be awesome.
Other than that, I’m pretty easy-going. Generally there will be dinner out, either on The Day or within a few days if that works better for the schedule. And I have certainly been known to buy myself something fab.
marise
Happy day! I also like to take the day off. The best part of my birthday over the past couple of years has been the cake that my husband and boys pick out for me. They always think I’ll want a Batman or Star Wars cake. I don’t even like cake but I just love the look on their faces when they light the candles on the super hero cake and sing happy birthday to me–it makes my day!
BB
Yay! Happy birthday!! Mine is also this week. What is it with the late January/early February birthdays? There’s so many of them. Is it the early summer weddings?
Liz
Happiest of birthdays, Kat. New shoes and an ice cream sundae for dinner. That’s the birthday tradition I plan to start next week. Might have to give it a trial run this week, however, just to make sure.
Donna J
I love my birthday routine, and I do it just about every year: I take the day off work (if it’s a weekday) and book a day at the spa. Then, when I get home I take a nap, and then I go out to a nice dinner with my husband and/or husband and friends! My birthday is Valentine’s Day, so that always makes it a little more fun!
Silvercurls
Forgot my manners earlier. Happy birthday, Kat, and many more!
Thank you for creating this site which has attracted so many articulate, accomplished, and empathetic women.
SoCalAtty
Agreed and +1!!
mamabear
Happy birthday, Kat!
I don’t personally have a routine, but every year on my birthday my mom tells me the story of the day i was born. :)
NOLA
That is so sweet! And so great that your mom is still around to do that (I lost my mom when she was 49 – one year older than I am now – yikes).
Anon
Happy Birthday, Kat!
Anon for this because I take myself on a trip every year for my birthday. I’m single, my family doesn’t live near me, and while I have friends in this city, it feels awkward to plan a party for myself. Some years I go visit friends in other cities, but this year, I’m thinking Paris.
SoCalAtty
Those stories are awful! I was dreading my 30th, and didn’t want to do anything, so DH said we were just going to our favorite Mexican place with another couple. I got there and there were about 15 of my friends! Total surprise from the husband that has never planned anything.
That weekend, he also took me to a guest ranch called Alisal in Solvang. You get to do 2 rides per day and it is on a huge ranch with fishing, hiking, tennis…amazing. Unfortunately, we thing DH got food poisoning and was sick in bed almost the whole weekend!
It ended up being really fun (for me) anyway. I would go on the early morning ride, come back and bring DH soup, watch a movie with him in front of the fireplace, go on the afternoon ride, we would go out for soup/dinner, then back for another movie in front of the fireplace.
So we don’t have a routine, really, but sometimes we do big things. DH wanted a big party for his 30th, so we re-did the back yard and had a BBQ for about 50 people. That was great.
This year (next month!) for my birthday we are going to Hawaii (Big Island). So that should be fun :)
In-House Europe
Happy (now belated) Birthday Kat!
This year, I will be the mama of a 3-4 week old baby (and a likely to be jealous 3 year old) on my birthday…which I think means I will be doing very very little.
Hmmm…need to think about this one! :)
Road Warriorette
Happy belated birthday Kat!! I have always had a couple of birthday traditions–I go for a delicious lunch, diet be damned, whatever it is I really want, and I go buy a pair of shoes. Then when I wear those shoes later, I always feel special in my “birthday shoes”. Of course, this year with the new bebe may be different, but I’ll still find a way to get birthday shoes :)