a new year...for me, anyways

I am officially a quarter century old! I can't believe that I am 25 now - when I was younger, I remember thinking that 25 was just so old and grown up, and now it's here... And I don't feel any different. I will admit that I have unrealistic expectations when it comes to my birthday, but I believe that your birthday is the one day of the year that is completely yours and it should be a big deal! Growing up, my parents made a HUGE deal about our birthdays and had the home parties with the homemade invites, party favors, and games that had homemade coordinating prizes... You get the idea. Each one was amazingly memorable, and I can say with confidence that I will do the exact same thing for our kids - and I will love every second of it. Well, now that I'm getting older (and have married someone who doesn't put birthdays on his top-holiday-of-the-year list) I'm needing to realize that unfortunately, the homemade-big-deal birthdays might just be a thing of the past. This year I also realized that I am really lucky. Everyone had been asking me what I wanted for my birthday, and I couldn't give a single answer to anyone. After realizing that I didn't get any presents because I couldn't tell anyone what I wanted, I decided that the reason why I couldn't come up with anything must be that I already have everything that I could want :). Sure, everyone loves to get presents on their birthday (and part of me wishes that I would just get surprise presents), but when it comes down to it, if you can't come up with a single thing that you want just because you want it, I think you are in pretty good shape. I got texts and messages on facebook from people I haven't heard from in years, a few unexpected phone calls, and lots of birthday wishes from the people who matter the most to me. We also went out to The Mont in Norman and had a great night with a great group of friends, and I hope that those nights continue to come my way! Honestly, I think I looked forward to that more than any gift I could have gotten. Spending time with a wonderful husband, old and new friends alike, and lots of great drinks on the patio made for a perfect night out. I hope that everyone that was with us had a good time as well, and I really appreciated everyone coming out to celebrate with me. As my 25th year begins, I wish for happiness, new opportunities, and hopefully a lot of great memories to come. A few flowers and surprise presents might not be too bad either, but I can't have everything, now, can I? ;)