Today won’t be a crazy story but I put it up nevertheless as it was recently my mother’s 70th birthday. We celebrated on Good Friday however her birthday is on the 31st of March but as this public holiday was so close this year she decided to celebrate few days later with many of her friends.
In our apartment block we do not only have a swimming pool with sauna downstairs but also a room which can be used for “parties”. My mother invited twenty guests and as neither of our apartments would have been sufficient to house so many people we reserved this party room. Invited were a couple of neighbours but the rest were all Finnish women who came to Germany around the same time as my mother back in the 1960s-1970s. These women who came to the party stayed in Germany after the initial contract work contracts ran out and settled down here in this city or neighbouring towns and villages with their German partners.
As my mother wanted as less work on her birthday as possible my wife and I helped out to serve the drinks to the guests and clean all the dishes later. Especially carrying everything upstairs again took several runs as it was just too much hence I didn’t need any workout that day. The main food my parents had ordered weeks in advance from a catering service and all the cakes were prepared by my mother herself within two days before the celebration.
When the first batch of people arrived together (all having the same kind of rose for my mother) they gathered around her and sang a traditional Finnish song about old friends. After the first verse my mother just thanked them quickly and said it is enough as the whole song has about 10 verses, each taking several minutes! You see, my mom is not up for much celebrations, especially not for herself and she is not a big talker either so the only speech she held was “Thank you all for coming and enjoy the food.” Well, it was enough I would say.
Nathan did also his best to entertain the guests by running non-stop around and having very interesting conversations with everyone. The best for him was apparently the cake. I do not know why and how but he just loves it, even when we just give him a bit cake base with tiny amount of cream (no young man, no sugar for you yet).
Though the celebration only lasted for roughly four hours it was enough time to get everything more than filled up with all the food. I still felt a bit sick 12 hours later and couldn’t eat anything till next days lunch. Last but not least I have to mention that my days of freedom and happiness will end in 11 days as MIL will arrive then…
What do you usually do on birthday? Do you celebrate every year or only on significant ages?
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Crazy Chinese Family 