Betsy and I had been talking about how to celebrate Seth’s birthday. Our original plan had been to celebrate a special day for him on his half-birthdays – June 24th – but as we got closer to his actual birthday, Betsy started to have second thoughts. We kept thinking about the events of last year, and the fact that it was Christmas time was really quite meaningful to us. Moving it to the middle of the year felt disconnected from that special season. On the other hand, I argued that Seth wouldn’t necessarily have warm memories of his birth and the time of year that it happened – he would just be interested in having a special day, and if it got caught up in the rush of Christmas, he’d feel disappointed.

After some discussion, we decided that it was most important to have Seth be able to celebrate on a day when he got all of the attention and would be able to celebrate with friends, and that we should start that pattern now. We could still do something small but special for him on the actual day, and we’d always have our memories, but the big day would be in the summer.

For this year, then, our plan is as follows: a celebration on Christmas Eve with just the three of us; a small party for our families the first weekend of January when Aria and Ethan are in town; and a bigger birthday party with friends in mid-June.

Christmas Eve was pretty quiet at our house, but it was nice that way. Betsy had stayed up late the night before putting together a nice Happy Birthday sign, which Seth wanted to pull down and eat. We let him open both his birthday presents and his Christmas presents, as we knew we’d be rushed the next morning.

He enjoyed his new presents, but seemed most excited about the cardboard tubes left over from the wrapping paper:

Betsy and I alternated between preparing food for tomorrow, wrapping presents, and rolling around on the floor and giggling with Seth. We made tentative plans to go to the family service at church that evening, but as our list of things to do that day grew and grew, we decided that it was more important to be able to enjoy our time together as a family without stress than to try to cram in another event.

We even had a fun birthday adventure trip to the local clinic . Okay, so this wasn’t really a birthday thing – but Seth had been showing signs of a mild ear infection, and we wanted to get medicine before all of the clinics and doctor’s offices closed for the holidays. I made a trip to Safeway that afternoon to get the medicine, and it was the craziest scene I had ever witnessed at the supermarket. Everyone in the city was picking up their last minute supplies for Christmas, and I waited in line to check out for about 25 minutes.

I think we made the right decision about Seth’s birthday. The Advent season and the idea of waiting for the birth of a highly-anticipated child will always have a special significance for us, and Christmas Eve will always have an extra layer of meaning for us. At the same time, this year proved that Christmas Eve often already has a lot going on, and that it’s better for both Christmas and for Seth if we focus on each event fully on their separate days, and give each their space to be enjoyed as a family.