We sat down at the end of November to plan out our December. End of course dates and deadlines for work, finalize our Christmas budget, decide which Christmas parties we would go to, schedule our date nights, go over any last minute budget additions or changes to the month. I synchronized all the dates in my paper planner with our shared iCal (I am an undeniable pen+paper planner person, but Marshall uses iCal so I put things in both places) and started making my Fun To Do List for Christmas and then we turned off the lights in the dining room and started to head upstairs for bed and I realized. Lincoln's Birthday. December 28th. Crap. I totally forgot. Didn't even have it written down in my paper planner (it was a reoccurring event in iCal, so if you're on the fence between iCal and pen+paper....)
So, we turned the light back on, sat down and cranked out the lowest key of low key 2nd Birthday parties: Firetrucks, family, order pizza, figure out how to make s'mores in a fire on his actual birthday. DONE.
The old Kellie was trying to hang onto mom guilt and beat myself up over forgetting my kid's birthday, but the new Kellie was like: Hey, girl. You remembered. This is only the second time you've had to do this in your life, and last time you were pretty much just celebrating keeping everyone alive. This year, you're thriving. And you also planned a pretty awesome Christmas month. Don't worry. He'll never know unless you blog about it. (Hmm.....)
And you know what?! It was kind of the best birthday ever. I love that his birthday falls over winter break. Marshall will always be on trackout and I will always been on winter break whether I'm teaching online or face to face, and it's a guaranteed family day. The past two years we've disassembled Christmas on December 26 and started decorating for Lincoln's birthday on the 27th which I kind of love. We got everything for free pretty much with a Wal-Mart giftcard from Marshall's work for Christmas so we decked it out.
We started on the 28th with a big breakfast, headed to North Raleigh to Fresh Levant Bistro for gluten and dairy free donuts, stopped at Aldi to pick up snacks for our local fire station and headed over there to show Lincoln the firetrucks. They totally outdid themselves. They showed him every nook and cranny of every firetruck that he wanted to see (he literally asked them to open every door/cabinet on every truck) and let him sit in the driver's seat and even turned the sirens on for him. He had the best day ever. He cried when we left and begged the firefighters to hold him (hold youuuu!) and it was a blast.
We came home, had a normal lunch, put him down for nap and when he woke up our families came over for pizza, presents and we made a bonfire (!! thanks Uncle Dan!) in the front driveway in an old metal washbin from our wedding (finally putting that thing to use!) and roasted marshmallows and made s'mores. The kid had the best day ever. Marshall had made some little cardboard firetrucks out of diaper boxes and the boys ran around in those and played with all the firetruck toys and by golly. It was a blast. He is so blessed and lucky to have such awesome grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins (and babysitters!) that love him so. We love you little guy! Sorry we forgot your birthday, we love you so much and celebrate that you're ours EVERY DAY. Also, don't want to forget how much you loved the dark chocolate. 85% for life on s'mores.
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