Well, not exactly today. Being slightly paranoid about internet privacy I will say my birthday is in the next 10 days but either way it is close enough for this post. Now I know that everyone has a birthday and that they aren't that unique but I wanted to share a few things about my birthday that make it a little outside of the normal.
So, for starters having a birthday within a week or so of Christmas has its positives and negatives. On the negative side, all throughout school we were always on Christmas break for my birthday so there was no cupcake celebration with the rest of the class or being singled out and given a few minutes of acknowledgement. The best you could hope for was joining a list of kids who all had birthdays over the break which is a pretty mediocre way to celebrate.
Another negative would be the proximity to Christmas when it comes to amount of gifts. Its the holidays, people are strapped for cash as they try to get all of their holiday shopping in. I'm not the type to complain about gifts I'm just saying the quality of gift can suffer if you to buy 2 right in a row for someone. Proximity to Christmas also means that if you live in a cold weather climate like I do that you are limited to indoor birthday parties instead of all the fun outdoor backyard BBQ and pool parties that other kids got to have. All of these are pretty generic to a birthday close to Christmas but I decided to up the ante by having a twin. As I wrote in this post here I have a twin brother so not only am I right next to the holiday I have to share my birthday with another person. On top of that, we were born on my dads birthday, so all 3 of us share the same day. Growing up I would get a lot "Fingolfin go take the garbage out" from my mom and when I'd try to complain that its my birthday and I shouldn't have to she would say well its your brothers birthday and your dads too and someone has to do it. Now its not all bad, the positives?
Positives
On the plus side, having a birthday this close to Christmas means that you can combine the holidays for one big gift. I could say something like I'd really like a new computer and have it count as both gifts. That doesn't really work with a birthday in July, you can't be like give me a gift now and when Christmas rolls around in 5 months don't worry about it we don't have to celebrate.
Another benefit is being able to get all your shopping done at one time. When you share a birthday with your dad and brother and its right next to Christmas your gift giving for the entire year is done over a 2 week span.
So how am I celebrating this year?
Now that I am older birthdays don't really do much for me anymore. I'll pack the kids up and head to my parents where a few cards will be exchanged and thats about it. Covid will limit the usual birthday dinner options but it will still be nice seeing family for a little bit. If you are feeling the holiday spirit or just want to do something nice to help celebrate my 37th year on this planet I will drop a few links to the coinbase earn promotion below and would appreciate you checking them out. If you are unfamiliar with it if you have a coinbase account they will give you a little bit of free crypto just for watching a minute long video and answering a short quiz about it.
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Either way, thanks for letting me share a bit with you and I hope everyone enjoys whatever the holidays bring this year.