The Twelve Gifts of My Birth Day

This could be the first day of the last year of the first half of my life.  My Daddy called me his "little tax deduction."  I've been asked on too numerous occasions to count, "So do you get gypped out of presents at Christmas?"  "What's it like being born on a holiday?" 

As I sit here listening to the fireworks go off around our home, I think back to many a birthday spent away from home.  Our family traveled to see grandparents in Florida or Texas almost every year for Christmas.  This meant that I had the privilege of spending my birthday with grandparents and cousins.  On one very important birthday (it had to be 14-you know those years are so crucial to a young girl if she thinks she's being left out), my Dad decided that we needed to be heading back to Michigan from Texas...on-my-birthday!  I remember trying to talk him out of traveling.  It didn't work.  We hit the road and I wasn't in a good mood.  Mom talked Dad into stopping at Chuck-E-Cheeses somewhere along the road that day. That was a first for our family.  Dad endured the expensive, bad pizza so that we could have a few games to break up the trip.

The first gift of the day was a "Happy Birthday to You" call from Andrew and Becki's boys in Michigan.  What a way to start out the day!

The second gift of the day today was a gallon of milk spilled all over our carpeted dining room floor.  This tempered our whole day as now my dining room carpet got a complete shampooing.  It needed it anyway, so I guess this was a blessing in disguise. 

The third gift was a nice long nap with my son snuggled next to me.  Craig is such a snuggle bug.  He loves to be plastered right next to me and thankfully isn't a real wiggle worm like one of my older daughters.

The fourth gift was a nice warm home in 20 some degree below zero weather.  We've been blessed to have such a nice home.  Our wood boiler keeps us warm a toasty.  Tim works hard to keep wood cut for it...which leads me to...

The fifth gift of my husband.  I thank God for giving Timothy to me.  He is so understanding of my quirks.  He just smiles at the girls being girls.  He works hard to take care of our family.  Of course he is still a "work in progress" but I thank God that he's willing to be worked on. 

The joy of childhood is my sixth gift.  Yesterday when I got home from working a 12 hours shift (which gave Tim that whole time with the kids), I asked of the girls had made me a birthday cake.  Natalie came running up to me and said, "No mommy, we bought you a birthday cake!"  I love this age.  It's so fun.  They just can't keep a secret inside.

The seventh gift was a book from my brother and sister-in-law The First Born Advantage: Making Your Birth Order Work for You  by Kevin Leman. It's quite a coincidence that I have five sister-in-laws that are all firstborns.  You can just imagine what it's like getting together.  I'm looking forward to reading this book and seeing how it works for me.

The eighth gift  was a yummy dinner at my brother and sister-in-laws house.  There wasn't going to be a party at my house on wet carpet so I gladly accepted her invitation.

The ninth gift was watching my kids get more excited about my birthday than I did.  The cake, the candles, the questions-"Are we going to have lots of people over?  Are we going to have pretty plates and napkins?"  My girls are BIG into parties.  If it were up to myself, I wouldn't go to all the extremes, but I know they like it.  It's what makes it mysterious and creates excitement, I guess.

Number ten came a little early, before Christmas.  I got a new Nikon DSLR camera for Christmas and my birthday.  What a package!  I'm going to need some schooling on how to capture all the essence of this machine.  Hopefully I'll be able to share some of the pictures in the future-I'm still learning.

After we got the kids in bed, Tim and I sat down to watch the DVD "How Great Is Our God" by Louie Giglio.  It is so powerful in describing how amazingly we were created by such an awesome and mighty God.  It's a must see and made it as the eleventh gift of my day.

And now as I prepare for a good nights sleep in the wee hours of the new year, I will be enjoying the gift of quiet remembering all the wonderful things from the past year.  The challenges that brought determination.  The daily chores that brought perseverance.  The young laughter that brought joy to my heart.  The Hope knowing that I whatever this next year brings, it has all been planned way before my existence.  I have the God that breathed the stars into existence as my Savior and friend. 

Happy New Year!