What's Your Birthday Style? by Milou Koenings

This week would have been my mother’s 84^th birthday.  She was a spring baby and she ushered the delightful feeling of spring wherever she went, whatever she did, all her life.

From Curly Girl Kitchen

I only with mine looked like that!

She always said her favorite birthday parties were celebrated at quiet family dinners. Maybe quiet family lunches, too. She always insisted on baking her own birthday cake, the same recipe her mother had always made for birthdays — and that I still make for my own. Other than that, she just wanted to celebrate with her family around her.

That’s not everyone’s cup of tea, though. For example, my sister doesn’t like cake. The best birthday “cake” we can give her is a cheese platter lit up by candles stuck in all the different cheeses! Stick a bunch of grapes and a few pears on that tray, too, and she’s in Heaven.

And one of my kids is never happier than when there’s a huge party going on around her — the bigger and wilder the better. (I hope that settles down before full-blown teenagerhood hits!)

In my new release, I Love You Three, the heroine organizes her narcissistic mother’s birthday party. It’s a summer barbeque in the backyard, the tables festooned with Martha Stewart decorations, and pretty much the whole town of Green Pines is invited. There are lots of blackberry dishes served. (See my post from last month!)

My most recent birthday was a biggie — you know, the kind that ends with a zero. I was all for going my mother’s route. I was planning on having dinner with my family, followed by my grandmother’s traditional cake, which I had baked for myself. (In case you’re wondering it’s a vanilla sponge cake filled with red currant jelly and covered with mocha buttercream.)

My family had other ideas and threw me a real party with my friends. Given that my birthday is December 25, it was pretty awesome that people actually showed up! (The slices of cake had to be a lot thinner to go around, which was just as well, considering all that butter…)

One of my daughters had reached out to all my relatives on Facebook and got them to send photos of themselves holding up birthday greetings. I was even blessed with photos from all over Europe and Australia!  The best thing about that was that in several countries, cousins who hadn’t seen each other for a while decided to get all together to take those pictures, so my birthday ended up being the catalyst that brought about these unexpected mini-family reunions around the world, which was one of the best presents for me!

I’m not a party person, but I guess I can handle one every decade or so.

How about you?  What’s your birthday style? Picnic for two in a meadow? Dancing all night at a club? Backyard barbeque?

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Milou Koenings is a USA Today bestselling author. She writes romance because, like chocolate, stories with a happy ending bring more joy into the world and so make it a better place.

Her other Green Pines sweet romances, Reclaiming Home, The Kampala Peppermint Twist and Sweet Blizzard are available on Amazon,  Amazon.uk, iBooks, Nook, Kobo and all your favorite e-book retailers.








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