A few months ago, I had the pleasure of celebrating my birthday. Birthdays are my favorite days. It doesn’t even have to be my birthday. I love celebrating people’s birthdays with them, even if I don’t know them very well or even at all. A simple smile, wishes for a wonderful birthday, and birthday small talk are all things that I love to share with people. We didn’t do anything extremely special, just a small family gathering with gluten free cupcakes and ice cream. That’s how I like it. It’s a rare occasion when we can have all of our family together. However, that day I received a beautiful, deeply personal, and useful gift.
That morning I felt like Tigger! I came out of my room feeling beautiful and there were my two amazing parents, frosting cupcakes for our family party that evening. The cupcakes had been arranged like flowers, one lemon frosted cupcake in the center and strawberry or chocolate frosted cupcakes around it for petals. I looked around the house and it had been turned into a Tangled wonderland! For those of you who don’t know me, Rapunzel is my favorite princess (along with Belle) for various reasons, which is a topic for another post.
After they sang happy birthday and we hugged, my mom asked me if I wanted to open my present that morning or if I wanted to wait for that night. I couldn’t wait. I had to open it! Mom went off to find it and I waited anxiously. She couldn’t find it. I was a little sad, but I knew it would turn up somewhere. She kept looking for a few minutes and she finally found it. I wasn’t surprised at all when she came walking out of the den holding a bag with the princesses on it. I can’t remember a birthday where the princesses weren’t a part of the festivities. I squealed in my head, or maybe it was out loud. I can only remember how overjoyed I was. Then I began to open the present. What was inside the bag surprised me. It looked like a glasses case. I opened it up and screamed! Inside was a Tangled watch. The band was a lovely lilac color. I immediately noticed that Rapunzel was on the face in a forest and Hannah was written right above her head. The bezel even had sparkly crystals on it! I wasn’t going to wear it to school because I didn’t want anything to happen before I wore it that night, so I turned to hand it back to my mom.
“Look on the back,” she nudged me sweetly. I turned it over and on the back was inscribed Happy Birthday! It was beautiful, but what made me happiest was how personal it was. It was an innocent princess watch, but still very appropriate for a teen or an adult. It sounds really cliché, but it’s true, so forgive me when I say that my parents are my best friends. I love them so much and I’m incredibly blessed to have them in my life. Disney is a place, but it is also a state of mind. With the frosting of Disney on my birthday cupcake I was able to be “at Disney” without leaving home. I had a magical, memorable, fabulous, pixie-dusted, the-adjectives-could-go-on-forever, birthday, and I wish all the same to you and yours.
