the big 50!

I'm not turning 50 yet....this is my 50th post already!!! I will use any excuse to celebrate. ANY!

First of all I think it has something to do with being American. We adopted everyone's significant days so that we could party more often.
And then, in our family holidays and birthdays were always a big deal. My mother used to wake me up on my birthdays before she went to work so that she could sing Happy Birthday. She'd light my baptism candles so I could blow it out and make a wish. Making a wish the first thing I did on my birthday! FUN! I was never a morning person and was usually really groggy and confused when my Mom would tiptoe into my dark room singing & holding a candle. As I got older she didn't do it anymore. I still miss it.
My Dad started my tenth birthday celebration about a month before my actual birthday with hints about my gifts! He would give me a new hint on each Saturday!!!!
(That was the year I got my trusty old 8 track stereo with Bing Crosby Christmas tape!)
Birthdays meant, without fail, a meal out, a cake and a lot of small presents. I still expect to celebrate the same way now that I'm an adult. My sweet hus didn't know when we were first together, his family did things very differently. One year he'd gone out and bought some nice presents but because we didn't have a cake and weren't going out to dinner I felt like it wasn't a birthday and I cried :(
He took me out for a nice meal a week later so don't worry.
Last year we went on a very romantic night out, it was the best birthday ever {although I did cry that morning because I thought everyone forgot - haha oh man - I'm actually getting teary eyed now!}.
My dad was like a big kid and made wonderful productions out of holidays, the Easter Bunny didn't just come visit - he left footprints! There was always meaning and a great deal of thought behind the gifts my dad gave to me, I was his "baby girl". He'd always send valentine cards and boxes of chocolates. He found this little chocolate shop in Charleston that handmade everything. That is where our chocolate Easter Bunnies came from and they were specially made for us!
My grandparents would also add to the joyous excitement of holidays by sending HUGE, and I mean HUGE, boxes to us every Christmas. There were Italian cookies, my grandmother's amazing fruitcake, chocolates, lots and lots of chocolates. There were usually gifts in those giant boxes too!
I wonder if my obsession with getting post started back then? I knew if it was December and the postman was coming up our driveway it meant PRESENTS!!!!!! Hmm.

This might go a little way to explain why I love gifts and celebrating so much!

I am feeling all giddy and kiddie after that! Perhaps I shall share with you one of my favorite poems from when I was a giddy kid:

Boa Constrictor by Shel Silverstein

Oh, I'm being eaten
By a boa constrictor,
A boa constrictor,
A boa constrictor,
I'm being eaten by a boa constrictor,
And I don't like it--one bit.
Well, what do you know?
It's nibblin' my toe.
Oh, gee,
It's up to my knee.
Oh my,
It's up to my thigh.
Oh, fiddle,
It's up to my middle.
Oh, heck,
It's up to my neck.
Oh, dread,
It's upmmmmmmmmmmffffffffff . . .

I will probably go to the shop and get some ice cream to celebrate my 50th blog entry :)