Throw Back post- The Best Birthday Present EVER!
I'm going to be real with you. I don't care for my birthday. It's not that I don't like getting older, because I do! It's that I don't like to have that much attention to myself.
I never know what do say, what to do, when people from work get me cakes.... the thoughts running from my mind are, why did they get me a butter cream cake? I hate butter cream! or Why a chocolate cake? I don't like chocolate! or why a cake at all, I don't want cake. Even when they get me things I do like, the thoughts are, why are they touching my Tiramisu? can't I just take all the tiramisu and go home? Keep your paws off Tiramisu! and I can't believe this person has never heard of tiramisu.
Anyway, back before I had social anxiety and hated cake, Sister #2 gave me the best present in the world!
In the spring of 1989 I asked my parents for a Ken doll I had seen in a store close to the market. I negotiated with both of my parents, beg, pleaded and cried for it. All to no avail. The answer was No, they would not be buying me a super expensive toy for no reason. I cried for hours!
A few weeks later, I paid them back the only way I knew how... going to live with my grandparents for the summer.
Growing up my family didn't really do big birthday celebrations, or big presents. At most, we would get a new outfit, and sometimes the outfit was handmade by my mom. My mom made the best dresses!
A few weeks before my birthday, my Mom came over to say that they were all coming over to my grandmas for my birthday celebration. She had me pick up my cake shape, I picked a heart shaped cake with pink frosting and sprinkles.
The morning of my birthday, my mom and my sisters showed up with my aunt and my cousins. We made a chicken from my grandmas farm, my mom and my aunt made the cake.
After we ate and had cake, I was surprised with presents. One from my mom, a precious red dress in a red paisley print with a pocket on the side. It was beautiful! Now, please feel free to call me an ungrateful jerk after this, because that was not the best present.
My sister, who is younger than me by 2.5 years said she had a present for me too. She brought out a box wrapped on really pretty and shinny silver paper. When I opened it, I screamed and cried. It was the Ken Doll I had cried for hours for!
I still do not know how she managed to get it. She was only 5 years old, and my mom still swears that she didn't buy it, and I believe her, because she would not buy such an expensive toy for only one of us. But she said that she did chores and made money to buy it on her own.
Sadly, I have to report that a year later my awful cousin broke off my Ken's leg. I wanted to kill her! and I cried again for a long time. My Uncle Ruben (May he rest in peace), attached his leg with a wire, but it ended up being longer than the other leg. But I still loved my Ken.
Out of all the birthday presents I received, that is the one I can most clearly remember. I hope to one day make it up to my sister.
What has been your best birthday present?
How did you celebrate birthdays as a kid?
What is your Favorite type of birthday cake?
I never know what do say, what to do, when people from work get me cakes.... the thoughts running from my mind are, why did they get me a butter cream cake? I hate butter cream! or Why a chocolate cake? I don't like chocolate! or why a cake at all, I don't want cake. Even when they get me things I do like, the thoughts are, why are they touching my Tiramisu? can't I just take all the tiramisu and go home? Keep your paws off Tiramisu! and I can't believe this person has never heard of tiramisu.
Anyway, back before I had social anxiety and hated cake, Sister #2 gave me the best present in the world!
In the spring of 1989 I asked my parents for a Ken doll I had seen in a store close to the market. I negotiated with both of my parents, beg, pleaded and cried for it. All to no avail. The answer was No, they would not be buying me a super expensive toy for no reason. I cried for hours!
A few weeks later, I paid them back the only way I knew how... going to live with my grandparents for the summer.
Growing up my family didn't really do big birthday celebrations, or big presents. At most, we would get a new outfit, and sometimes the outfit was handmade by my mom. My mom made the best dresses!
A few weeks before my birthday, my Mom came over to say that they were all coming over to my grandmas for my birthday celebration. She had me pick up my cake shape, I picked a heart shaped cake with pink frosting and sprinkles.
The morning of my birthday, my mom and my sisters showed up with my aunt and my cousins. We made a chicken from my grandmas farm, my mom and my aunt made the cake.
After we ate and had cake, I was surprised with presents. One from my mom, a precious red dress in a red paisley print with a pocket on the side. It was beautiful! Now, please feel free to call me an ungrateful jerk after this, because that was not the best present.
My sister, who is younger than me by 2.5 years said she had a present for me too. She brought out a box wrapped on really pretty and shinny silver paper. When I opened it, I screamed and cried. It was the Ken Doll I had cried for hours for!
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| This was not my Ken doll, just one I found online. |
Sadly, I have to report that a year later my awful cousin broke off my Ken's leg. I wanted to kill her! and I cried again for a long time. My Uncle Ruben (May he rest in peace), attached his leg with a wire, but it ended up being longer than the other leg. But I still loved my Ken.
Out of all the birthday presents I received, that is the one I can most clearly remember. I hope to one day make it up to my sister.
What has been your best birthday present?
How did you celebrate birthdays as a kid?
What is your Favorite type of birthday cake?
I remember how much I wanted a Cabbage Patch doll. And I was never into dolls but I wanted that one so bad. I even asked Santa for it (when I had stopped believing the year before). But I never got it for the same reason, my mom didn't want to spend so much money on something I would play with just once. But later my grandmother made me one, yes. A neighbor helped and the fingers and toes the neighbor did were perfect and the ones my grandmother did were a little deformed. I still have it and cherish it.
ReplyDeleteIt is so precious that your grandmother made you a cabbage patch doll!! I'm very glad you cherish it! I have gotten overly attached to things my grandmother gives me.
DeleteOh that is such a sweet present! And to think your sister had the wear with all at age 5 to save money and buy that for you! I loved to play with Barbies as a kid. We did not get a bunch of presents for our birthdays but my mom made it special. She would always decorate the dining room and have our grandparents over for cake. My grandparents would get me a present and so would my parents- but nothing huge. Honestly, something like a Barbie doll would be what I would get! I only ever had one Ken doll. I was more into Barbie.
ReplyDeleteThat is so sweet of your parents and grandparents to celebrate with you! It seems birthday parties are so elaborate now!
DeleteOh wow, that was so sweet of your sister! Too bad about the leg. I remember when I was a kid I think there was one year when I really wanted a cabbage patch kid. I thought it was the best thing ever when I got it.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like cabbage patch kids were the toys to have back then! That is so awesome that you got one!
DeleteO I had to laugh at your Ken having one leg longer than the other. At least he survived! I was SO into Barbie dolls. I don't remember getting them for my birthday ( but perhaps I may have), but I do remember getting Barbie dolls and accessories for Christmas.
ReplyDeleteThat was so sweet of your sister to buy that for you. Does she remember doing that back then?
My poor Ken! at least my uncle fixed him and we could still play with him. We used to say that he had been in a terrible accident saving babies, that' was why his leg was weird.
DeleteOMG! I'm so jealous you had accessories!!
she does remember, vaguely, but she remembers.
I am so sorry somebody stole your bike!! that sucks! How mean and rude !
ReplyDeleteI love that this memory is so clear in your head. How wonderful that your sister managed to pull off getting that Ken!
ReplyDeleteI remember getting a lumberjack Ken whose beard you could shave off with warm water. He had real hair. He was the BEST. (My sister and I literally had a Barbie village in our basement so we had tons to play with, but that Ken stands out in my mind.)