Happy Birthday Bryan

I have had this picture either hanging up on my mirror or in my wallet continuously since I was 16 years old. Isn't he cute?
I think Bryan is 17 or 18 in this picture. Now, as of a few weeks ago, he is 39.
His birthday came on an insanely busy day. Rebekah had one of her "Christmas Tour" performing days. The girls both had auditions for a play. Julianne had a babysitting job. I had to be at the Libby Gardner Concert Hall for my concert by 5:30. Bryan himself, was so busy at work that he didn't even come home until close to 10:00. By the time I got home from my concert he was completely and totally zonked out. So other than taking him to a quick lunch (quick because he was teaching a class that day) we really didn't do anything to acknowledge his birthday. Two days later he left to go to Chicago on a business trip. Sigh. And although I knew he wouldn't mind because birthdays aren't really a big deal to him...I felt bad that the events of the 9th steamrollered right over his big day.
I decided that despite the fact that it would be a week and a half late, we were still going to have a little birthday celebration. When he arrived home from Chicago there was a big birthday banner, a bouquet of balloons, a big carrot cake with candles just waiting to be lit, and a 6 pack of his favorite cream sodas. It made him smile. And although he still fell asleep before we could have cake, (he authorized Lilian to blow out the candles for him so the kids could have a piece even though he was functioning on 3 hours of sleep and couldn't stay awake any longer) I think it made him happy all the same. These homemade birthday banners are a tradition that go back to my growing up years. Every birthday my mom pulled out the butcher paper and wrote out Happy Birthday in big block letters and then handed us crayons, colored pencils and markers and let us go to town decorating the thing. Then it hung on the wall during the big birthday dinner...and usually stayed there for a few days. It's a tradition I loved so when Bryan and I had children I started the birthday banner in our family as well. I think some of my sisters do it in their families too.