Celebrating Life: My 32nd Birthday Recap

My 32nd birthday was definitely one that I will treasure forever.  When I was on the verge of turning the BIG {30}; I so dreaded celebrating anything over 29.... Now, things are so different!  I am so thankful for this life that God has gifted me with and it is my wish for everyone else to to open the gift of {true life} and experience the goodness of God....

What better place to start seeing this wish come true than with family and friends?  My longtime blog pal Adrienne shared this splendid idea on her blog after she celebrated her birthday this year and I shamelessly {borrowed}it..... I was so touched by it and felt as though it was a great witnessing tool!!!

Instead of having some type of bash I {like Adrienne} invited my family and friends to come to worship with me at church on the Sunday before my actual birthday.  I was overwhelmed by the love and support shown to me by my family and friends... My family drove over  four hours to worship with me!!!! It was incredible... Can you spot me?

God, has answered so many of my prayers this year {more on that later} and this, for me, was the icing on the cake!  It is so good to worship with your loved ones in spirit and in truth! 

After church, my {natural} family joined my {spiritual} family at our annual Christmas dinner... This year we stepped outside of the box and at dinner at one of our favorite local Japanese restaurants, Umi's.  It was entertaining, edifying and efficient!  What a great time of fellowship...

Once we finished dinner, I exchanged gifts with my family members and they headed home... I on the other hand, had a laundry list of chores to complete, gifts to wraps and loose ends to tie for work....

I managed to complete all of my to-do's just in time to celebrate.... On my actual birthday, I wanted the day to be calm and relaxing.... Well, with the exception of my blackberry dinging from the tons of birthday wishes from my facebook friends.  {Side Note:  I made a personal goal to either to "like" or respond to everyone who took the time out of their day to make my day extra special... I did it}!  I actually ended up with nearly 250 facebook birthday wishes!!!  Who needs Hallmark when you have facebook?  LOL!

My boss had given me a gift certificate to spafinder.com a few weeks ago.  So, I found a local spa and scheduled my appointment for the afternoon of December 22nd!  My spa experience was super!  Such a relaxing and refreshing way to celebrate!

 I think that I will do a repeat of all the above next year and add more as I see fit :)! 
So.... there you have it... No bells and cocktails... No hussle and bussle... No stress and no dress... Just a calm, well balanced and meaningful birthday!

What a wonderful way to celebrate!  I think I will hit instant replay next year!!!!