Kingdom of Knuffel

When I was little, birthdays were a big deal
After about thirteen or so, more of a revolving door
Only once was my birthday on a school day, every other time it was on a weekend or Thanksgiving vacation
18th is when we usually have the last one
Got one for 19 cuz I was a month in remission
20 got overlooked, only a handful of notifications and texts
21 I got annoyed awake by mom asking if I want to go drinking. I essentially told her to fuck off. Got a single text and three notifications
Last year, 22, fell on Thanksgiving, so dad and I went shopping for a small dinner and ice cream cake. Was about all I got. Maybe one each for text and notification
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNOUScxh-q9/
And yes, we were talking about that so it's planned XD

Pretty much after 20 I got more by moping on sites than I did from people I know/knew

Aha, I'm actually not big on birthdays, but it might be because of the birthday overload I get every month. I have a pretty large friend group IRL; we all go to the same Bible Study, and with 15-ish members, sometimes we have multiple birthdays in a month. I'm also in charge of birthday reminders, and finding replacements for folks who are unavailable to bring the cake (in theory, everyone is in charge of one person for the year).

It's always nice to celebrate a friend's birthday, though. Last month, I bought one of those random geek boxes for a friend's birthday on Geek Fuel (it's just a box of random Fandom stuff), but I haven't seen him because he's been busy, so it's just been sitting in my room. (He knows it's with me, though.) XD I just wanted to appreciate him for being a good buddy.

For another friend, last month, he had a dance-Zumba party which I didn't attend (Mika only dances at weddings), but I did donate money to his charity, and attended his big dinner and got him his favorite cake. He's also a good friend to me.

I'm glad there are no birthday in October, 'cause I'll be too broke to do anything for Christmas at this rate. *facehands*

Uhhh... but back to me and my own birthdays --eh. I'm not a big fan of them, but I'll still celebrate a bit. This year was fun for me because a good friend took me out to do two different escape rooms, got me tipsy, and then took me Karaoke-ing. It was a blast, but I think some of the stuff started blurring together, pfft. So frickin' fun, though!

On other years, my birthday would pass with minimal celebration, but that's alright. Knowing that I'm loved by friends and family, and being wished happy birthday by my wife, I think that's already a lot for me to be thankful for.

I'm not as big on cake, but I really do like the homemade cakes I get, when I get them. It's just nice that someone took the time to make one for me. I also like cakes from a certain bakery here as well, though, 'cause I'm a big fan of mousse cake. And cheesecake. And birthday pies (I love birthday pies). Not sure if I have a favorite, but I like having dessert, and the whole celebration bit. It's nice.

When I was a kid, birthday's were always a lot of fun. The parties would have games, lots of food, and we always planned it on the day of the Christmas light parade, so we'd go out and watch that.
When I became a teen, my parents stopped throwing parties for me. They didn't even want guests in their house, and they still don't. So, every year, whatever I plan, nothing really happens in the end. Anymore, I'd be lucky to get a cake.

I hate my birthday. It's always just another day, so it ends up being kind of a letdown. I mean, I don't know what I expect. I just expect something more than nothing, you know?

By "nothing" do you mean that there's no one to celebrate with, San?

Even if no one else is celebrating, you can always try to cheer yourself up by investing as much as you can into your own birthday. Buy yourself a gift, treat yourself to something you like, write down some nice things you like about yourself and what positive changes you've made because you're here and you're you! You can also write down how much you've grown over the years and how you'd like to see yourself grow in the future.

Those things might make your birthdays just a bit lighter.

I don't like my birthday very much.

As a kid I didn't have any close friends and the other kids always forgot about me. When I was a teen, it was the same. Here we celebrate our 18th birthday the most, as the gate to adulthood. In my class in high school there was an agreement between us that we celebrate everyone's 18th birthdays. There was always someone else responsible for getting the cake and the present (from the charity). It was pretty sad that even though I participated in all the birthdays along the year, noone remebered about mine.

Now I have some close friends and they usually remember about my birthday, even though sometimes they are few days late. But it's still nice. My family also remebers, and they even buy a small cake for me every year, as well as something small for a present. I hate cakes, I'm barely able to eat a piece, but I really appreciate they do something like that.