When you grow up in a large family, birthdays are often the only time you can claim the day to be your own.
In a family with seven children, birthdays were always a big deal. Unlike shared holidays like Christmas and Easter, our birthday was our special day.
Mom went out of her way to spoil each one of us when our birthday rolled around. She made our favorite dinner, and we got to choose the kind of cake we wanted.
Back then, you had to make cakes from scratch. Bakery store cakes were expensive, and the only kind of cakes Winn-Dixie carried were the Little Debbie varieties.
I’ve made cakes with an ingredient list as long as my arm, and the steps can be overwhelming. Thank goodness for companies like Duncan Hines and Betty Crocker. They allow you to claim home cook status without having to use five bowls.
All you have to do is open a plastic bag, dump it in one bowl and add water, oil and eggs. When ready-to-spread frostings came along, I thought I’d hit the lottery again.
One year, I told my son I’d take cupcakes to school for his birthday. He made me promise to bake the cupcakes, not buy them from the store. But, in typical mom fashion, I forgot to make the cupcakes the night before.
The next morning, I panicked. I bought ready-made cupcakes from the grocery store and a can of ready-to-spread frosting. I headed to the school parking lot with a plastic garbage bag and a butter knife.
I had a plan – scrape the store-made frosting off of the store-bought cupcakes into that plastic bag and re-frost the cupcakes with the ready-to-spread frosting. My boys thought that was home-made.
When all traces of the store-made frosting was gone, I opened the can of ready-to-spread and did my best to make the cupcakes look like I’d just taken them out of the oven.
No matter if you’re buying cupcakes from the store or whipping up a tried-and-true family recipe, birthdays are a time to recognize someone’s importance. In our family, February is prime birthday month.
This week, our daughter-in-law will celebrate her birthday on the same day her youngest son was born.
Erin handles a busy household with ease, and she has a great sense of humor, two traits sorely needed with five children. Young Danny has four older siblings who dote on this easy-going toddler.
The next week, it’s my youngest sister’s birthday. Donna lives in Virginia, and we’re hoping the snow melts in time for her to get out and celebrate her birthday in style.
She was a darling baby, an adorable toddler and she’s a beautiful woman. She is artistic and can transform a simple object into a piece of art. I’m lucky to have a couple of her paintings in my office.
My sister Diane and brother Johnny have back-to-back birthdays at the end of the month. Diane is extremely intelligent and a person who takes charge because she’s always the most capable person around.
She’s loyal, loving and her opinions and judgment are solid. Johnny is a man of faith, a soulful songwriter, self-taught guitarist and a gifted pen-and-ink artist.
At the end of February, we have back-to-back birthdays highlighting my nephew, brother-in-law, another nephew, niece, great nieces and great nephews. They are all bright lights in the family with larger-than-life personalities, brains and talents.
At the beginning of March, our brother Joey will celebrate his birthday.
Born with a gentle spirit and a quick wit, Joey quietly goes about his life in service to others, being a fabulous husband and a great “Papa Joe” to his grandchildren.
Happy birthday to the incredible people in our family who remind me every day how extremely blessed I am.
No matter when you celebrate your birthday this year, in the words of our late Grandma Marguerite, “remember to have fun along the way.”
This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.