My birthday is coming up. When I was little I used to think that the whole Christmas hullaballooo was all about me. I was pretty narcissistic then...and maybe a tad now. Just a tad. Granted, back when I was a mere sapling Christmas wasn't celebrated on such a grand scale in Malaysia. There were no expensive set dinner menus in restaurants, no Christmas sales, and definitely no trees sold at Ikea. But there were still celebrations held at hotels and such. My Mum did not cook so we would eat at Holiday Inn (then a posh hotel) ALOT if the maid went AWOL, hence I remember a couple of kiddie Christmas parties there, or what I took to be the run up to my birthday. The funny thing is we never celebrated my birthday on my birthday. No one was ever around. I could also never have the whole attention getting birthday party in school because there was no school. So I don't really know how I got the idea that the whole festive shebang was for me, but I just did. The same sort of anti-climax applies today. The whole run up to Christmas/my birthday is the fun part, but once you hit the day itself it sort of becomes a lunch bag let down. Usually everyone, including myself, is all partied out by Christmas morning. So can you imagine how difficult it is to keep up the momentum one more day.

And those who celebrate birthdays close to or on extremely commercialized holidays will understand me when I say I never get as many presents as everyone assumes I do. No, I do not get the Christmas present and the birthday present the next day..I get an all in one. If I am lucky I get 2 presents rolled up in 1...usually it is 1 present for 2 occasions, so technically I only get half presents. This is done best by my darling husband who bless his heart is extremely generous, but cheap. He proposed on Christmas so that year I didn't even get a 2 in one..it was a 3 in one. This year we are getting the painting (delivery and hanging on Monday..yay), so instead of buying silly gifts for each other (which I like) we get something we can keep for a very long time (although I have tried to argue that handbags can last just as long). But I have just realized that he probably also means that the painting is also my birthday present, so technically he has 1 occasion invested in it while I have 2. He's done it again! But I shouldn't complain..we bought Sasha books for Christmas, we have read them to her many times, and we are going to wrap them again for her to open..hahahahaha...poor kid. But at least her birthday is in April.