We celebrate around here by fully transforming our lower living level with party. It usually involves a couple weeks of making, and a full weekend of installation.
It's like a month-long art-party-extravaganza.
To say that we get a wee bit carried away doesn't even begin to get at the reality of our over-doing where parties are concerned.
The night before Isabella's party, Dave and I were discussing the root of the problem. Both of our parents were simple, loving, and non-party-throwing people. Dave's family had THE VERY SAME BIRTHDAY CAKE for EVERY SINGLE BIRTHDAY. [Full disclosure, it's still a sweet spot of his; it goes straight for his soul.]
My experiences were family-style gatherings with cousins, and various sheet cakes, with gallon tubs of ice cream–the ones with the plastic red handles. The mental image of them still brings a smile to my face.
All of our childhood birthday memories left us feeling terrifically celebrated, certainly. But the adult version of our kid-selves, leaves us wanting our extravagant parties. And as our Craunlets are still smallish, [read: mostly under our control influence] we pretty much take turns throwing ourselves parties, you know, FOR THE KIDS. We really do it for them, truly, and a little bit for us too.
We can go completely crazy with what we might have liked, and lavish it on our mini-me counterparts. It's a WIN-WIN; the entire Team walks away happy, generally carried off on a tidal wave of towering sugary cakes and miles of papery decorations.
The transformation of our living space is something so magical, I can't even articulate. In the days of preparation, and the following weeks of living in the decoration...the Craunlets absolutely come to life with excitement. It's like living in an art installation; it takes us somewhere so awesome together, right inside of our otherwise every day.
Our family birthday tradition centralizes on the certainty of celebration, with the unpredictability of never repeating a theme or approach–the wildly anything-is-possible with an idea mentality, paired with a stubborn we-can-build-it resolve.
It's fabulously intoxicating to make something from nothing, and cleverly commandeer all the bits and baubles that we can gather from art + craft supplies around the house. Every birthday is a fresh challenge for the Team.
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