I’ve always loved birthdays. I think it’s so cool that there is a day where your existence is celebrated. Through presents and gifts, texts and calls, Facebook wall posts and Instagram collages, dinners and parties, and of course CAKE, you’re made to feel special and showered with love, all because you were born.
It’s a lot like the Christmas season if you think about it. Christ was born some 2000 years ago, and still we are celebrating like crazy, giving God all the praise and glory for the precious gift of his son. Of course, no one can beat this birthday celebration, but I just love the underlying theme here. Births are a big deal, and Jesus’ birth was the biggest deal! God knew we would need a savior. He knew we would need an example, a guide, for how to live the life he’s called us to. A life that, regardless of our circumstances or the storms we walk through in the day-to-day, can be full of joy, peace and love. So, God sent Jesus to be that perfect example, and now every December 25th, we get to celebrate the Savior of the world’s birth; showering him with our love and gratefulness all Christmas season long.
I’ve been blessed with a birth date that allows me to celebrate both my birthday and Jesus’ birthday in the same season! On top of that, I’ve been blessed with a best friend who shares the same birth date, giving me a person to forever celebrate my birthday with!!
This year, Calli and I are on two different continents for our birthdays, and next year, we’ll again be on two different continents. Are we bummed by this? Heck yes! However, how cool is it that Calli will be able to say: “I celebrated my 23rd birthday in New Zealand!!” and I’ll be able to say “I turned a quarter of a century old in Zambia!!” It stinks we wont be doing this together, but we have many more years after these next two to celebrate our birthdays by traveling to Vegas together, taking a cruise, skiing in Colorado, or who knows what else!
So, in honor of our first birthday that we haven’t celebrated together since becoming friends, I thought I’d flashback to how we celebrated each December 19th together since 2010…
2010: Joint birthday party at Calli’s house
Highlights: all of our friends in one place, playing DDR in the basement. I gave Calli polka-dot rain boots that year!
2011: NEW YORK CITY!
Highlights: Seeing times square, riding in our first NYC taxi cab (and paying a high price for it, thanks Ms. Aimee!!), walking through THE Macy’s, seeing the Friends TV show apartment, seeing the 9/11 memorials, walking through central park, and the Bronx Zoo!
2012: Birthday Bonfire
Highlights: Again, all of our friends, surrounded by the fire, listening to music, hanging out and roasting marshmallows while stringy lights hung above
2013: National Harbor
Highlights: Going through the Gaylord ICE exhibit and going down their ice slide, attempting to ice skate on fake ice near the harbor, eating delicious cupcakes, and Calli got her nose pierced! (and of course took it like a champ!)
2014: Random Acts of Kindness
Highlights: My 21st! We prepared notes of encouragement to put on random cars, delivered candy canes with notes attached to tellers at the bank, paid for people behind us in the drive-thru, and provided the money and a bag of popcorn for someone to get a Redbox on us!
2015: Downtown Richmond, VA
Highlights: Calli’s 21st! Chicken Parm (my specialty), Tutus, Bahama Mama’s, dancing the night away and many strangers who didn’t believe it was actually both of our birthdays!
2016: Nashville, TN
Highlights: The entire trip honestly. From uptown to Broadway, to Honky Tonk Central, to pizza places and barbeque places, to coffee shops and a biscuit brunch, to Blink-182, to “you and me going fishing in the dark”, to Dixie Chicks, to SO MANY BOOTS (that we truly regret not purchasing); 2016 was one for the books!
Happy birthday, birthday bestie! Catch some rays on the beach for me in NZ and I’ll catch some snowflakes for you here in Spotsy! December 19th, 2019 will be here before we know it and rest assured it will be a day full of celebration and laughter!
***If you don’t yet know the joy, peace and love that comes with knowing Christ, I pray that this Christmas would be the season that you come to know him, and truly know him, as the good and perfect savior that he is. His existence has dramatically changed my life for the better, and that’s something to be celebrated.
