Happy Birthday my Love ♥

Some birthdays are bigger than others in our own eyes. Those we see as more significant and  there for memorable.
Some years ago the children had started  planning this birthday.
They had thought of all the wonderful things we would do together as a family.
The special meal, the celebration, the activities that we would share. The people they would like to invite for their Dad.

Then life continued to step in!
The older ones continued to grow and guess what??
Some of them moved on with their lives and actually aren't living with us anymore.
They have pursued their own lives and dreams and  so can't be so fully here in the actual physical space with us.

So they were not able to actually be here in our home for this birthday.

By being away from home  and living more individual lives that are not so actively involved with our own it became obvious  the closer it came to Stephen's birthday that this would not be how we had imagined it all those years ago.

Yet this still was a birthday that needed celebration.
So those of us still at home gathered together and had a brainstorming session.
We helped choose the meal and special additional items and we planned the gifts and the cards and made the special birthday preparations.

It turned out that this was simply a family affair and that minus some of the most special people in Stephen's life.
It turned out that even though our lives are different to how we had imagined all those years ago, I guess we were a little naive in how quickly these changes would occur.

Having said this  I still think that this birthday was celebrated with all the hall marks of what is actually important to us as a family.
The time spent together sharing a meal, the opening the presents from the birthday bag while sitting on the throne next to the seasons table that has been decorated to reflect that persons interests or something special about them.
We certainly had to make adjustments in picking up other children from work and the disruption this caused to the celebrations- but the love, care and joy that we shared on this day certainly puts this celebration into the well lived variety.

Happy Birthday my Love from your adoring wife and children.
xxxxxoooooo