Birthdays

What did you do to celebrate birthdays when you were growing up?

Mother baked delicious cakes, and she used candles to give them the birthday aura. Birthday gifts at our house were simple and inexpensive, but well appreciated.

I think that the first "elegant" birthday gift I bought for my mother was a fruit cluster made of clay. It was a colorful wall hanging. And I still remember the excitement of buying it with my own money and walking down Third St, carrying that rather heavy package.

Since Mother crossed to the other side, that memory-loaded bunch of fruit has graced my kitchen walls in San Antonio, in Boston, in Olathe and now in Bethany.

Birthdays are for giving to those we love most. And somehow the joy comes back to the giver.