Of A Homely Birthday Celebration

Way too many special occasions have been going by without notice at our place, lately. There always seems to be something or the other happening for us to really, properly sink into the feeling of how meaningful these days are to us, or to make them feel special – work stresses, a cranky baby, a chaotic situation at home, the OH or me not feeling well, a general bad mood, or Bubboo’s sickness. The OH has been taking it in his stride, but I haven’t been very happy about it. So, when the OH’s birthday rolled by, recently, I was determined not to let the day slip by just like that.

I didn’t want to take a chance of going overboard with planning too many things to do either; I just wanted to do a few little things that would make the day feel special. And, I am happy to say, that is just what we did. We had a homely birthday celebration of sorts, spread out over a couple of days. The OH’s birthday fell close to a weekend, so he took Friday off and decided to celebrate over the three off days, a little bit every day.

The Sampoorn Santhe was on then, and we decided to spend Friday visiting there, with Bubboo. The rain and traffic jams and waterlogged roads were a pain, and we got exhausted just making the trek to and fro the venue, but the fair was totally worth the visit. Bubboo was cranky and the husband got super hungry (he refused to have lunch before we left home, and then we got stuck in a traffic jam and reached the exhibition at tea time!). We got so sick and tired of the horrible commute that day that we cancelled all our plans for the next two days, decided to stay put at home, just relaxing, eating home food, spending quality time together, and taking Bubboo to the neighbourhood park. I am so, so, so glad we did that!

This year around, there was no eating out, as usually happens on birthdays and anniversaries.

But there was this…

A bouquet of his favourite roses and rajnigandha flowers

And this…

A surprise cake with a Bubboo figure wishing her father a very happy birthday

The cake came from the same home baker who made the cake for Bubboo’s first birthday. It was a gorgeous, gorgeous chocolate-orange cake, which was super-duper fresh. It was much loved by everyone at home.

Another view of the little girl on top of the cake

And then, there was this…

Our favourite pink-and-white coconut burfee from Adayar Ananda Bhavan

And, of course, there was some much-needed catching up with sleep, a few experiments in the kitchen, and a lot of jhoola swinging.

I might get used to the idea of such homely celebrations of special occasions, you know? Have we grown jaded over the years, or grown up enough to realise that these days don’t need going out or elaborate dinners or big gifts; they only need a whole lot of togetherness and little moments to make them special?