Happy Birthday Mom!

I'm sure most of you expected to see a Christmas blog today. I do tend to discuss the holidays and what they mean to me.

But, today is also my mother's birthday. As we have learned over the years, when you share a birthday with Jesus you very often play the second fiddle.

Not today.

That is not to say that this blog won't have some of my favorite Christmas memories. They are there, wrapped up with Mom's birthday.

Mom has mentioned, on numerous occasions, that she had only one birthday party growing up - when she was 5. We couldn't do too much to change this while we were growing up, but we have made the effort since we became adults.

While I'm certain the original idea came from Mom, Daddy always impressed upon us to wrap one present in birthday paper. We never did that whole "here's your Christmas birthday present" thing. We have always made an effort to have a birthday present.

Over time, Andrea and I have tried to even mix it up a little more. Make the birthday part of the equation even more memorable.

For instance, in 2002 Andrea and I took Mom to New York City.

She'd never been.

It was a total surprise.

And there is nothing in the world as magical as New York City at Christmastime.

We worked for months on an itinerary - the Rockettes, "Regis and Kelly", Tavern on the Green, "The Producers", and High Tea at the Plaza Hotel. We also shopped and did the touristy stuff. We presented the itinerary to her like she'd won a prize on a game show.






I'm pretty sure she had a great time.

Always looking to outdo ourselves, for her 60th birthday a few years later we gave her something else she'd never had before.

A SURPRISE birthday party.

Now, people, this took some serious doing. Mom seems to know everything that is going on and we never were very good at telling fibs to her. It was complicated somewhat by the fact that Andrea and I both live out of town so we did all this planning long distance.

But we pulled it off. We were able to gather a lot of her friends and had a very nice lunch. And she was honestly, truly surprised. I'm still not sure how we did it.

There aren't any big surprises or elaborate gifts this year. This year it will just be our family, at home.

But that's good, too.

We will remember the family members no longer with us. Laugh about how Papaw finished his Christmas lunch at the hospital on the day Mom was born. Joke about the sack and Army boot Daddy gave her one year when she wanted a trash compactor. Reminisce about having Christmas Eve dinner after church at Sambo's Restaurant every year for a long time and the year that Papaw forgot his wallet.

Christmas is a magical time. It is a time for family and friends. Time for loving and sharing. And a time for remembering that our Lord and Savior was born to ultimately save us all from ourselves and give us the greatest gifts of all.

But in our family another very important person was born on December 25th. She was there for all the asthma attacks and sicknesses, all the basketball and soccer games, the weddings, births of her grandchildren, and more than a few funerals.

She's our mom.

And we love her.

Happy Birthday Mom! Hope your day is wonderful!