Sometimes I get real special emails from fans, and it truly makes my day! I received this one from Christine:
"Hi Natasha,
We recently stumbled across your book as I was looking to try and help explain to our then 2 year old, now 3 year old what New Year’s Eve is. We purchased your first book then. She fell in love with it. Since then, we’ve purchased Valentine’s Day (my birthday) and The Night Before My Birthday (our daughter’s birthday was only a few weeks ago).
Our daughter surprised me yesterday by taking your book out of my hands and reading it “verbatim.” It may sound like baby babble but she knew it in its entirety and interchanged some of the words for the words she still calls things. She’s only begun reading this a few weeks ago.
We thought you might want to see it. Thank you for writing this series. We love them and plan to collect them all."
Christine mentioned that her birthday falls on Valentine's Day and I was curious what it was like as a child having a birthday on Valentine's Day so I asked her to write for this blog. Here's her recollection:
"Growing up as a child with a birthday on Valentine’s Day always made me feel incredibly loved. I remember knowing that day wasn’t only about me or only my day to celebrate. Everyone was celebrating that day.
I was always woken up early (6 am?) by my parents creeping softly into my room. They always had two gifts for me, one for my birthday and one for Valentine’s Day. My grandparents always called me shortly after to sing me “Happy Birthday.”
At school, I wore a heart-shaped candy corsage my Mom made for me every birthday filled with various lengths of heart lollipops, chocolates, and gum balls. And when I got to class, I handed out miniature versions of my heart-shaped candy corsage to each classmate.
Everyone remembers Valentine’s Day parties in elementary school? I remember how long the day felt waiting for our party. I remember cookies, candy, and snacks. We passed out valentines in our Valentine mailboxes that everyone made beforehand. We “read into” those valentines received from that special crush even though it was just a standard Valentine from the store with nothing special written on it.
I passed out homemade birthday cupcakes while classmates sang “Happy Birthday” to me. If felt special to be individually celebrated, too, while classmates asked, “You were really born on Valentine’s Day? Cool!” After school, we usually had my birthday party at my grandparents' home or a special restaurant with gifts and cake. I don’t remember the flash of it all. I just remember the love.
I used to joke when I was in high school and college, “Well, if it doesn’t work out in the romance department, there’s always my birthday to fall back on!” And as an adult? I still love it. I love being able to celebrate a day to love with others. The world needs it. And my husband will give me two gifts always, one for Valentine’s Day and one for my birthday, to remind me that the day is also about me, too. And I do have to say, now that I have my husband and 3-year-old daughter, it is SO much better to give than to receive on my birthday."
Now that's a sweet thing to remember! Thank you, Christine! And Happy Birthday!
