Happy Golden Birthday

This past weekend was my son's girlfriend's birthday.  I was told it was her golden birthday.  You only have one golden birthday and this made it a very special and very big deal.  What you ask is a golden birthday?  I asked the same question myself.  A golden birthday is when the date of your birthday matches how old you are.  So Loren was going to be 25 years old on the 25th of July. 

I had never heard of a golden birthday.  I asked friend after friend after friend if they had ever heard of such a thing.  I got the same answer from everyone - NO.  So I decided that this was a family tradition, but was definitely happy to be included.  Who doesn't love a birthday party.

After dinner out, we went back to her parent's house for dessert and gifts.  Wasn't I surprised when she showed me a card from her Grandmother and Grandfather, who live in Ohio, that said Happy Golden Birthday!   But the best part of the evening was watching this normally reserved young woman open her gifts.  With such excitement and oohs and aahs, she was thrilled with everything.  And then this budding Julia Child opened her special Golden birthday gift from her parents and started to cry - a professional stand mixer.  Pure joy!

And then I had to encourage the quilter inside of her and her love of Kaffe:

When she was sad that she was turning 25, I teased her that she was now a quarter of a century.  She didn't think that was funny.  I thought back to those days and how I thought that turning 25 made me feel old, and now that I am older than half a century, it really wasn't old at all.  I told her that the best is yet to come.  Life just keeps getting better and better as you get married and have children and grow old with someone that you love.  As your children grow and mature and become adults that you admire.  The best is yet to come.