Age is All Relative

Every year at this time my husband and I go broke. Our financial demise begins on April 24th and runs until May 15th.

You see, it's "Birthday Season" around here. Beginning with our son, Adam and ending with my dad.

When we were first married we immediately made a "no gifts" rule with all members. The arrangement was: cards, calls and to try and congregate for dinner. Have any idea how much that alone can cost? I'm sure you all can identify. We said when we have kids, that's who should get gifts. Period. Otherwise, we feared we'd never have a home of our own-except one with the accompanying address of Tent City, USA.

But I digress. As of now, in the three weeks I've mentioned we have 7 birthdays and Mother's Day. If you want to add a couple of weeks-include 2 anniversaries as well.

So here we are again. I love to celebrate my kids birthdays. They have them one week apart. I split it down the middle and have a family/friend party on the weekend in between. Nothing fancy, but fun none the less. At least for some of us....

This year, my wonderful husband pointed out that our "baby" is 23 and our first born is going to be 25 and was now a mother herself. He put his foot down. We'll still give them (and our son-in-law, who follows the week after) cards with birthday money enclosed-but no more dinners for 15-20 people.

"After all, they aren't kids anymore!" Well, not chronologically, but they are STILL my babies!
Anyway, we discussed it further and agreed.

We will sing Happy Birthday to our son and daughter with the ever growing clan. The rest of the birthday kids: my sister-in-law (lives up north, card and call is the only way), one of our brothers-in-law, our nephew (ka-ching), our son-in-law (ka-ching) and then my dad, who will be 78 this year.

These we will do during our Mother's Day BBQ. You see the last three are consecutive and one of them is always on Mom's day. This year, our daughter joins that club along with my mom, mother-in-law, sister and me. Do you think that any of the men will take care of any of this for us?

When I mention our "month of happiness and financial doom" to people, most reply with stories of their own "birthdaymania" times.

It seems age really is all relative.