I’m not sure if I would define it has hopping or skipping. Maybe bounding. In any case, Julie wasn’t just walking when she came up to me in church yesterday morning, smiling as she held out her hand.

“Happy birthday, and this is because we all love popcorn and I love canisters!” she said.That was a very nice way to kick off a very nice day!

No, this birthday wasn’t as exciting as when I turned 14, had my first riding lesson at the stable, and kicked off more than a decade of being up to my elbows in horse hair and hay. It wasn’t as funny as when I turned 5 and my mom planned a hilarious circus themed birthday party in our backyard. It wasn’t as giddy-oh-my-gosh-I-feel-like-a-kid-again-even-though-I’m-about-to-get-married as when I turned 24 and Danny and I spent the day exploring Disney World. It wasn’t as filled with surprises as when I turned 13 and 19 and my best friends threw surprise parties for me. It wasn’t as butterfly-inducing as when I turned 20, and Danny and I celebrated with our very first date.

It was just lovely. The evening before, we’d had dinner with my parents. In the morning we went to church. We had lunch with two of our best friends. Then we drove to the beach — and took a nap in our car, listening to the waves. We took a walk around our neighborhood, soaking in the most beautiful day of fall so far, I opened Danny’s present to me (a Kelly Moore bag, yay!) and then we headed to The Garlic, one of our favorite restaurants, where we enjoyed a glass of wine, some delicious food, and a quintet that pretty much covered Sinatra’s entire repertoire. It was lovely.

Amid all the busyness of our busy lives, it’s so wonderful to step away from the everyday to just enjoy another day. We shouldn’t need birthdays to have the best days. But I don’t think I could have asked for a better one.

~ Laura