So it's Birthday season here at the Kertson household. For those of you who don't know already...all four of our birthdays are within a month of each other, only two weeks separating each with Brandon starting the extravaganza on Dec. 31st, Ambers being Jan. 13th, Mine Jan 27th and lastly Peyton's being Feb. 8th. (Poor Peyton...this is the first year she actually understands her birthday and is soooooooooo looking forward to it and has had to watch all her other family members birthdays go by before hers.) So there you have it...poor planning...or just no planning...however you want to put it, that is our situation. So with this situation comes many challenges, the first of course is the money issue...especially after the Holidays things are a bit tight. Before Amber was born I didn't see this as such a huge crisis. Brandon and I were willing to take a back seat to presents and things on our birthdays so save up money for presents and parties on Peyton's birthday but that little plan soon went out the window a year later when a new little gift came along in the form of Amber in January. So now we have delicate decisions to make regarding how we celebrate birthdays. Now I understand that there are the kinds of people who grew up in households where birthdays were not a huge deal but I WAS NOT ONE OF THEM, so Birthdays are big for me. I want to go all out and make them special so that is why I am struggling with our situation.
So how are we handling it this year you ask? Well...as a good friend (who shall remain nameless) has pointed out...not well. It all started with this idea that seemed to make a lot of sense to me, here it is: invite the same amount of friends to your child's party as the age they are turning that year. So when Amber's 1st birthday rolled around we invited her ONE best buddy Micah and his family over for dinner and cake. It was a nice evening...very different then Peyton's first birthday where there was 30+ plus people and lots and lots of presents (not that that was not fun too) but following this new rule I tried it out. Unfair to Amber? I don't know...At the moment I don't think she knew the difference. All she knew was that she got to play with balloons and people sat around and watched her eat cake. (which was homemade with less sugar...different then peyton's store bought chocolate cake which put her in a sugar coma. Unfair too?) Will Amber ask why she didn't get a big 1st birthday party like Peyton did when she is 16 and looking at family photos? That I don't know...
When it came time to plan Peyton's party I started it with the new rule in mind although I knew I had to fudge it by two. Inviting five friends and their families. I blame it on being apart of a wonderful church family where peyton attends play group on Friday and Sunday school on Sunday and has accumulated some very close friends that she speaks of on a daily basis by name so we could not pick three and leave the other two out. Well some how in the last couple weeks the guest list has grown to somewhere around 30 people!!! How this happened...well once again...I blame it on our wonderful life where we have so many wonderful friends that love peyton and want to celebrate her. Unfair to Amber? Maybe...but at this point what has been done this year has been done. But it takes good friends to make you think...so that it what I am doing in this blog. Thinking. I know in my heart I do not favor one of my children more than the other and I only had their best interest at heart in the planning of their birthdays. Next year will bring even more challenges as Amber grows and starts to understand her birthday we are going to have to decide how this is going to go down and how it is going to go down fairly. So any suggestions would greatly be appreciated. Obviously for me I want to throw them both individual birthday parties and make them feel loved and celebrated. I hate the thought of them having to have combined birthday parties for the rest of their childhood but as anyone knows who has planned a birthday party before they are freakin expensive!!!! So what to do....what to do. Well I guess I dwell on it all year and hope to come up with a fair yet wonderful solution for next year. Again any suggestions are much appreciated!!! and don't worry another little gift to arrive in the winter months is NOT in the plan this year....and yes there is a plan! :)
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