I am a sucker for Birthdays! Birthday parties, birthday cakes, birthday decorations, birthday kids! After celebrating my daughter’s most recent birthday, I realized that I have unknowingly created a family Birthday Tradition: the candle photo op!
It wasn’t something that I set out to do with purpose, this pic of kid-with-candles, but it touches my heart and I smile as I look back upon the images. Over the years, the party venue didn’t change too much, one year we lived with my in-laws while our house suffered construction, and one year we partied at a roller rink. Some years the candle sat upon a cake, and other times a cupcake, a cake ball, a push cake. Tall candles, shorties, supermarket generic, expensive boutique, shaped like a number, but always lit, and always accompanied by the traditional song sung surrounded by family and friends. I’m kinda tearing up right now thinking about it – and now that she’s a teenager, I do wonder, how many years do I have left of our unintentional yet heartwarming birthday tradition? And when my daughter is grown, will she mind, will she let me, will she cross her fingers and hope I continue the candle photo op with her daughter? Time will tell. So, whatever your celebration looks like, whether it’s a cake with candles, or an annual piñata, a plate of the longest noodles or a pull on the earlobe, capture it. You’ll thank yourself later.
