Turning 28: A Different Birthday

My birthday was on February 1st. Normally for my birthday I get as many of my friends together as I can and we all go out for a mad night out, generally on the weekend closest to the day of my birthday. That didn’t happen this year.

This year was a little different though, as it has been for everyone. I’m sure there are many others who celebrated their birthdays in the way I did, and I’m sure there are many others who had different traditions and rituals for their birthday that they haven’t been able to carry out…

My uncle turned 50 a few days before my own birthday. That’s a big birthday. One to make a fuss of, one that you celebrate with your family or friends. My family did what we could to still make the day very special for my uncle and to feel like we still celebrated as best we could. We took part in the most recent tradition of the “drive-by” birthday, honking our car horns as we drove by the house to mark the occasion, followed by socially distant cupcakes — the new birthday cake when there’s a few people outside your bubble. He thoroughly enjoyed the day and the little commotion we were able to make for his birthday.

I was lucky enough that I had a birthday cake. We have a small little bubble in our household of 3 adults and 3 children, and because it wasn’t a big birthday there wasn’t any commotion to be had, but my lovely fam still made me a cake and I loved it! I was sent a text asking what sort of cake I would like for my birthday to which I responded I didn’t mind, any cake would do. After the second or third text asking me the same question, I decided to be a bit silly and asked for a “rainbow unicorn cake with sprinkles” jokingly, not knowing there was a cake being made for me, until I got home and was presented with this:

As well as fantastic cake that went down a treat, I got some new slippers which I requested (and loved the ones I got!)

It’s been 9 whole days since my birthday and I still feel like I’m celebrating, hence this blog post. During the week I received a belated birthday gift in the mail from my cousin, and another one from one of my closest friends who has been living her best life in Dingle, Co. Kerry since March of last year. Her gift absolutely blew me away as she sent a little care package of bits and bobs of all the little things she knows I like along with a lovely card and a cute little message inside it. My favourite of all the bits though is the Grumpy Mule coffee, as its a running joke with most people who know me that I get extremely grumpy if I’m not regularly caffeinated haha

So it wasn’t my usual birthday celebrations, but I didn’t mind as I still had a fantastic time with those I love, and had phone calls and texts from those who couldn’t be with me to celebrate. Everyone has had/is going to have a very different birthday lately, and unfortunately it doesn’t seem like there’s going to be any change to that for a while (in Ireland anyway), so we may just learn to create new traditions, and enjoy the time with the people we can be with…

How was your birthday during these strange times? Create any new traditions, or were you able to celebrate as usual? Leave a comment below and I’ll see ya’s in my next blog post 🙂