Thankful Thursday: Birthday Traditions of the Spring

This is my first ever Thankful Thursday link up with my friends,  Maddie and Addie however neither of them decided to participate today… but I still wanted to post my Thankful Thursday anyway!  I am so thankful for both of these women, and I love that they have started this link up on their blogs.  Any other Thursday, feel free to link up with them and share what you are thankful for.  

This Thursday, I want to express how thankful I am to have a family that stands so firmly on togetherness and tradition. As I mentioned back in March, we celebrate birthdays from March 6-April 20 as all five of us have birthdays within these six weeks. So naturally, as of Monday, all 5 of our birthdays will have passed, all desserts will have been had, and our world will go back to normal..ish. Over the years, we have developed a lot of our own normal, ordinary traditions celebrating, and that is what I am thankful for the most this Thursday!

Before I list out the traditions I am thankful for, I want to express how thankful I am for my stepmom whose actual birthday is today! Without her, the birthday celebrations and all the life put in them would not exist as it has for the last 15 years.  She has become such a great role model for me demonstrating how to keep everything organized, how to plan, stay healthy, and how to bake/cook anything under the sun while also working and socializing like a normal human.  She really does an amazing job keeping my family in one piece, and I am very thankful that she came into my life at such an early age! A lot of what she has taught me is what makes up my normal, ordinary life, and I will be forever grateful for her.

Now- The Birthday Traditions!

1. We all get to pick our own dessert

Lexi: Lemon Bars, Tiffany: Vintage Cake, Me: Banana Cream Pie

2. We almost always have to get creative with the candles

Last year was the last year that I was forced to blow out as many candles as I was old, so we didn't run out of candles like we normally do between my sister and I this year.  My stepmom somehow always bypasses the act of blowing out candles on her own cake, but we still make her stay next to us when the family sings happy birthday even though she tries to hide. All three of us would much rather avoid all that attention, but tradition is tradition I guess...

We sang to each other out of awkwardness

And why do people think this is a great photo to take EVERY year? We are blowing out candles for goodness sake..  Not the cutest moments of life, you know?

I only had 4 candles to blow out this year, so my wish will come true :)

Lexi finally blew all hers out after 3 attempts…

3. Watching the Masters with my dad and grandparents

You know, I am not really a big golf fan especially when we are watching it on TV, but the Masters has always been something that we have to share with our birthday. It has ultimately become a tradition to have it on the TV and watch it all together (and usually bet against each other trying to predict the winner) when we have our big family party. It's definitely not the worst thing to share our birthdays with, and I have grown quite fond of it… especially this year.  

Need I say more? source

4. My grandma's "themed" gifts

This year, my gift theme was glasses, my stepmom's was dishes, and my sister's was hair products… We were having a little too much fun with my theme since they were all some sort of crazy figurine wearing glasses…. Naturally, we all had to try on this pretty pair of specs, which are now displayed on my bedside table at home for decoration. 

5. The stories

For some reason, we always tell the same stories over and over again about when my sister was born and the crazy things that happened on that day, especially with my grandparents, same with Tiffany and myself. We never bring the stories up on purpose, but they are told every year and I swear we laugh harder each year at how funny they are. In my family, everything is always an adventure, so for a big event like a child being brought into the world, I am sure you can only imagine the "adventures" we seem to have. Trust me, they are ridiculous. I wouldn't trade any of them for the world though. 

Well friends, thanks for reading my Thankful Thursday! 

See you Sunday ;)

T. Hall