Becoming a Teen-The Party, The Presents, The Attitude!

What's a Mum to do? My eldest will become a teenager in no less than 14 days. I have so much to do, so much to learn, so much to put up with!

The first big issue is one that we have every few years or so, depending on when Leap Year falls.

Bregon's birthday actually has the audacity to fall on Thanksgiving this year. This is NOT something that he looks forward to.

In fact, he actually dreads having his birthday celebration lumped in with the Thanksgiving turkey.

He has very stoically agreed to attend Thanksgiving with the family, but ONLY if and ONLY if, they agree NOT to stick a candle in the darn turkey. His words, not mine!

The first time this happened, we just cancelled Thanksgiving altogether as my family had other plans anyways that year, and we had a good friend in Houston who had wanted for us to have a sort of dysfunctional family Thanksgiving down there at her lake-house.

We ended up with a full-blown bon-fire party complete with hot dogs and s'mores and Harry Potter cake. Bregon was blissful, but then again he was also turning 7.

This year, he turns 13 and begins life as a proper teenager. He will no longer be a little kid anymore.

That, coupled with the whole Thanksgiving birthday issue, is enough to worry any Mum.

So, the issue now is, what to do about a birthday party. We have always had trouble with parties for Bregon being that his birthday ALWAYS falls the week of Thanksgiving and most folks are busy with family get-together's and traveling.

The years when we worked out at the Texas Renaissance Festival, it was easy. I just bought all sorts of period cookies, cakes and refreshments, invited the entire cast and our vendor friends and their kids, and had his party during the faire day as part of the show, patrons included.

This year, we have been lucky in that we finally have a house large enough to let him have his party at home.

I have been kicking around the idea of letting him invite all of his friends over (most will have family conflicts & probably won't be able to make it) and have a real, proper sleepover.

They could rent movies or a video game, bring their favorites maybe, and possibly roast hot dogs and marshmallows in our fireplace.

It sounds good in theory to me, because when I turned 13 it would have been a great party. But, this is the here and now, and I know things have changed.

Are my ideas age appropriate or are they much to juvenile? Would the boys think I was treating them like a little kid? I worry.

Then there is the matter of what exactly, to get a 13 year old for his birthday. Is that long awaited video game a good present or is it too much like something he would have received when he was 8?

I do not want him to feel like I am treating him like a baby. After all, he is turning 13 and that is an important milestone for any child.

I may sound weird, but in a home where Bregon has to live with 3 one year old's day in and day out, a mum can often be stuck in baby-land which is a hard mindset to come out of!

I just hope that some of his friends can make his party. His best friend isn't from here, and it's getting increasingly difficult to accurately and subtly check the whole friend availability for a party!

I am thinking that this shindig should occur the weekend BEFORE Thanksgiving to maximize attendance likelihood, but I just am not sure if this is a good idea. I mean, we are available, but will anyone else be?

If I were another Mum (whose child's birthday did NOT fall on a major holiday week each year,) I think I would certainly enjoy having my child invited out for the weekend.

I think it would give the family time to prepare for the holiday itself and give them some child-free time!

Especially given the idea that most kids (especially teens) get antsy and even cranky when the family is focused on cooking for holiday get-togethers and such!

Then there is Bregon himself. When I ask him to check with his friends about the possibility of party dates and activities, he is all blase about it.

He did mention that he was quite positive that one friend would be able to make it as they were not planning on going out of town, however another one was up in the air.

He isn't even helping with present ideas. It's as if he doesn't really mind getting one thing or another, or even anything at all.

Oh no, I think I see that whole teen-aged attitude creeping in! I don't know if I am quite yet prepared for this roller coaster, but HERE I COME!!!!

So I remain very confused. I suppose I shall do invitations of some sort tonight so that he can hand them out tomorrow at school.

I shall just have to hold my breath and wait and see what happens. If anyone has any idea how to survive this, any ideas would be appreciated!

Thanksgiving Cancelled Due To Lack Of Interest!

Every couple of years, my eldest son’s birthday falls on Thanksgiving. There is nothing he hates more in the world than to have a birthday cake with a Thanksgiving turkey on it.

Because of that preference, every time his birthday falls on Thanksgiving, we give him a choice of what he would like to do to celebrate.

What do YOU think he is going to choose? He habitually cancels Thanksgiving due to lack of interest and opts to celebrate his birthday of course!

The last time this happened was when he turned 7. We had wanted to take him to New York to see the Macy’s parade, but the World Trade Center had just fallen down so we decided that it probably wasn’t a good idea to go.

Instead, we opted to spend Thanksgiving weekend in Houston at the lake home of some of our very best friends.

Lucky for us, they are very like minded, and didn’t have any problem canceling Thanksgiving to celebrate Bregon’s birthday.

In fact, we were all so excited, we through all of our energy into the party plans. We decided to go ahead and celebrate his birthday that Thursday, and Thanksgiving would be celebrated on that Friday.

Our friends lived in a rural area, and had this tradition of having birthday bon-fires for each of their children’s birthday’s so Bregon would finally get to have a bon-fire of his own.

He was very excited at the prospect of getting to tend his own birthday bonfire!

As an added plus, one of the Harry Potter movies had just opened and we planned on hauling everyone into the Woodlands to see the movie as part of the celebration!

Both our family, and our friends and their family threw all of their energy into planning the parties. I think we all over-bought in the present department!

We decided to go ahead and plan on hot dogs and s’mores and other camp-fire type foods for the birthday, and we went crazy on the Thanksgiving food preparation as well!

When the big day came, we managed to pile about 15 of us into 2 vehicles and get everyone to the movie on time.

Because we were going for the early movie, we ended up getting the early-bird special on the tickets and somehow ended up getting let in early ahead of the line.

I am still not sure if it was because Kat had called ahead and told them that we were coming with a birthday boy in tow, or if it was the fact that Bregon had received a complete Harry Potter outfit along with some home-made accessories in the form of a cape and real wood wand and had been wearing the entire lot of it at the time, but we managed to get VIP treatment at the theater.

Later that afternoon, we set out all of the party food, invited all of our friends in the area over for the party, and let Bregon tend to his very own bon-fire.

He danced around his bon-fire wearing his new Darth Maul underwear on his head and parts of his Harry Potter costume…namely his cape and wand!

Of course we just had to take those condemning blackmail photo’s for when he was older. Oddly enough, we have the second wave of those pictures nearly 5 years later… but I digress!

The birthday party went over smashingly and was a success. That night, we geared up to celebrate Thanksgiving for the next day.

We prepared everything from the traditional turkey and even a ham, to foods such as home-made salsa and tabouli that we just decided were necessary for whatever reason or anther!

It was funny, really. Nobody seemed to mind making the changes to allocate for Bregon’s birthday. It seemed almost natural, really.

As it turned out, we ended up having a rather large turnout of party-goers in spite of it being Thanksgiving. Many even either stayed the night or came over the next day to join us for our belated Thanksgiving celebration.

This year Bregon’s birthday will fall on Thanksgiving again. We are currently out of Harry Potter movies to go and see at the theater, so we shall have to come up with something else to do that day.

We do have a fireplace now, so I suppose we could have everyone over for a weenie roast and S'mores!

I am not sure what my father or the rest of my family thought about our of canceling Thanksgiving in lieu of celebrating Bregon’s birthday that year, but that was the way it went.

That was the plan, however, and we were sticking to it! After all, how dreary it would it have been to have to had a turkey with a candle stuck in it for your birthday!