T1’s Average Ordinary Birthday Party

Yesterday T1 turned 18.I have to work, but he and the Big Guy had already planned an adventure – driving the length of Vermont via Route 100 from south to north. It’s the second year in a row that Thing1 has come up with a little adventure for his birthday, kind of a walkabout. Last year he hiked up the back of Mount Equinox, the mountain that backs up to Manchester, Vermont.He  dodged mountain storms and negotiated with the bear. Yesterday‘s trip wasn’t nearly the same nailbiter, but it seemed appropriate for a father and son to have a little road trip together.When they got home, they were both too exhausted for anything but a piece of T1’s traditional blueberry birthday pie before falling into bed.We have never been big on the lower blown kid birthday parties. Thing one had one party at McDonald’s and another one at the house with all his friends when he was in first grade, but his birthday is usually a family affair for us. We usually celebrate on Lake Michigan with my parents – we called them at the Michigan house from Germany the morning he was born – and a barbecue dinner and blueberry pie.Tonight will be the family celebration. We’ll be home because we missed Michigan this year for various reasons. Thing1’s girlfriend of 2 1/2 years, along with her family, will join us, And there will, of course, be blueberry pie. It’ll be a simple dinner, and the only decoration will be the happy birthday banner that we recycle every year for every family birthday, identical to the one my mother hangs in Michigan for every birthday we celebrate throughout the summer is there. The gaudy dollar store banners have become their own theme, but it’s one I love because ultimately this theme is a celebration of the days the Big Guy and I expanded our definition of family.