Today is indeed my birthday. Douglas and David did a wonderful job of surprising me with birthday presents this morning:

  Flowers selected by Douglas.

 This is a digital photo frame, very cool.

I did not expect either of the gifts as I knew David had already ordered these dishes from LL Bean and we had also gotten each other a Broadway in Boston subscription (Dave’s birthday is two weeks after mine.)

I guess that’s why they call it a surprise 🙂

Now some people worry that having a birthday in a holiday week is a no fun. I’ll admit, having a birthday near Christmas, as my brother does, isn’t too great. Folks either forget or give you just one gift for both birthday and Christmas, which really sucks for a child when quantity of gifts is the preferred measure.

But Fourth of July week. Man, oh man, Mom-101, do not worry about Thalia. Even if you don’t read her my comment about the benefits of this birthday week, she will figure them out for herself.

Here’s the deal:

If you live in North America and your birthday is in the first week of July, you can pretty much celebrate the whole week.

In the US, it is easier if your birthday is in the few days after the 4th, and I imagine in Canada, it works best the closer your day is to Canada Day. You start with family celebrations on the relevant holidays, and sometimes that takes a couple of days. If any of your friends are around, maybe your mom will take you all to the movies or something. And then, when the holiday week is over, and your friends are back in town, you get the birthday party.

The fireworks?  

 They’re for you.

(From flickr under a creative commons license. Photographer has great fireworks shots. )

The rest of the country may be celebrating Independence. Your family…. it ends up being all about you. Don’t believe me? Ask my mom. When she asked if we could come over for a cook-out this week, it was for my birthday celebration, not the Fourth of July.

Born near the Fourth of July? It’s not bad at all.