Happy Birthday To Me

I’m not sure what year it was that Mrs Proclaims started buying me a giant birthday cookie in lieu of a birthday cake. I’d guess it would’ve been around 2014, which would have been the first birthday I celebrated in my current abode, which is within walking distance of the shop which sells the cookies in question. Certainly it was a birthday tradition for quite a few years and a welcome one at that. I always enjoyed my giant birthday cookie, even on the years when my birthday was slightly ruined by falling on a work day (one of the perks of working in education is that my birthday should always fall during the Easter holidays and, as it turns out, this has not been quite as regular a perk as I would’ve hoped or expected since taking on my chosen profession).

Alas the birthday cookie ceased to be quite as feasible from 2020, first interrupted by the pandemic, which temporarily closed the cookie selling establishment and then by the fact that children made the walk to the cookie shop somewhat less easy for Mrs Proclaims to fit in and she had to settle, instead, for a nearby supermarket to buy me a cake. The cakes were all very nice – the nearest supermarket to our house is a Waitrose, so I have hardly been shortchanged in recent years. But I did really like having the birthday cookie and in comparison even the nicest of cakes would aways be a little bittersweet (in an emotive sense – the cakes themselves were always very sweet in fairness)

This year an early Easter has meant my birthday has fallen very much within the holidays and so I was able to offer sufficient childcare for Mrs Proclaims to take on the cookie shop commute once more. I am, once again, the proud and happy owner of a giant birthday cookie as pictured above. I am a temporary owner of course, because it is not possible to have your birthday cookie and eat it, and I fully intend to eat it. It won’t last as long as in previous years because I now have additional helpers in the form of my two daughters to ensure the thing is polished off fairly quickly. Little Proclaims has already made short work of a very generous slice. Mini Proclaims is a little under the weather but I’m sure she’ll rally in time to ensure she claims her fair share.

Birthdays are strange affairs as you get older. I’m happy to acknowledge the fact I’ve survived another year on the planet, which always seems to be no small achievement, but the older I get, the less getting older seems like a thing I actively want to celebrate. On the other hand, it’s hard to live in the same house as a five-year-old and not consider birthdays to be the greatest thing ever. Little Proclaims is mostly interested in her own birthday, but, given that she can only celebrate that particular event once a year, she’s determined to enjoy everyone else’s birthday too and whether I felt a sense of occasion when I woke up this morning (or rather was woken by my ailing and unhappy toddler), it has been party central since Little Proclaims woke up and not an hour has gone by without my eldest daughter wishing me happy birthday. Mini Proclaims is less aware of what is going on, but as a birthday treat she appears to have rallied against her virus and is more cheerful than she has been for the last 48 hours.

I have received an abundance of presents, most of which will contribute to my waistline in the next few days. I will mainly be spending the day with my wife and children, although I was afforded a little time to myself earlier on (a rare and precious commodity when you are the parent to a five-year-old and an almost-two-year-old) and I went to a morning showing of the new Ghostbusters film in our local multiplex. It has not received especially good reviews but I quite liked it.

I’m back with my loved ones now and sat at the dining table writing this, while my children play with a large carboard box. I have some cold beers in the fridge, which were given to me by Little Proclaims this morning, albeit I think it unlikely that she purchased them herself despite her claims. It’s still a little early to crack them open, but I shall enjoy at least one of them before bedtime.

And of course there will be another helping or three of birthday cookie before the day draws to a close.

Quite a good birthday, all things considered.