January love it? Maybe…

January is my birth month and I loved January as I grew up, even though it was cold. My mother always made our birthdays special. She planned and held birthday parties for me when I was younger with all my friends and a wonderful cake she made and decorated. I enjoyed unwrapping presents and playing with my friends.

Later, after I got sick and was in a wheelchair I got to choose a friend or two to spend the day with me and I got to choose my birthday meal. Usually, I chose sloppy joes, chips, cake, and ice cream. All except the ice cream was homemade. (Mom was a fantastic cook.)

Growing up, marrying, and having a family made a difference in how I viewed my birthday month. So did my career of writing poems, features, plays & skits and books. First thing in January I have to gather all my income and expenses, figure out how many books I used as promotion or gave away. The information is used to first fill out the form for paying sales tax and the rest for filling out state and Federal taxes. Getting ready to do taxes has a way of draining the fun out of anything—even my birthday month.

After having kids, we started a tradition that was new to me. I’m not sure how it evolved. The person celebrated would have no say in how the day was celebrated. This went for birthdays, as well as Mother’s and Father’s Day. The rest of the family made plans that would be a surprise for the one celebrated. It was fun to plot and plan, especially when the kids got to be elementary age and older.

The celebrations were creative and fun. Creative because of intelligence and imagination and because our finances were very limited. Those times forged positive memories in the midst of the high stress of getting tax information and receipts in order. I am a wordsmith. Math is not my strong point and high stress always accompanies getting ready to do taxes. Yet, I wanted to have everything in order as soon as possible so we could move on. Taxes overshadowed my excitement of January as my birth month.

While taxes dimmed my excitement of the month, my birthday toward the end of the month still created a high point. But as our kids grew up and married, I had other reasons to be thankful for my birthday month. Our son’s daughter Tori was born in January. Thirteen years and one day later, our daughter presented us with our second female grandchild Ellery. We often celebrate birthdays together as a family, though, of course, Ellery also has a party with her young friends. Having grandkids is such a blessing and it’s so much fun to get together and celebrate our birthdays.

Taxes won’t go away, but neither will the positive memories of family, friends, and special birthday celebrations. I guess even with getting ready for taxes, January is a pretty good month after all.

Old Age Not For Cowards

Creation in Chains