Why Having A Winter Birthday No Longer Sucks

Tomorrow I celebrate yet another birthday. Born and raised in Ohio, I spent the first 30 something birthdays of my life cold. Sometimes really cold. It was -6 degrees in 1984. Having a winter birthday was something I always hated. I didn’t hate my birthdays. Most of them have been pretty good. I hated the time of year my birthday landed on.

Yes, March is the month of Spring. The weather starts warming up. Flowers begin to bloom. If you grew up in Ohio or that neck of the woods, you should be smirking right now. Ohio cares nothing about supposed to be’s when it comes to weather. I’ve had years there where Spring went missing in action and we just had extremely long winters that went right into Summer.

To make matters worse, my birthday lands at the beginning of the month, so I got the whole coming in like a lion deal. Not the going out like a lamb part. There also was a period of years where it was almost guaranteed to be a blizzard or at least a Level 2 (Ohioans will know what that means) that would make leaving the house a dicey proposition.

It was like a cosmic joke. Let’s wait until my birthday to have a really big snowstorm! The pic below was from my 18th birthday I believe. Though dressed to go out, I’m pretty sure we had to change plans and stay home due to bad weather.

But it wasn’t always doom and gloom. I remember a birthday where it reached the upper 60s for a high and I was ecstatic! I stayed outside almost the entire day (I always took the day off when I was working). I breathed in the fresh air. I went outside on purpose and just drove around for no good reason. I had a taste of what a warm weather birthday would be like. And it was wonderful!

I grew up being so jealous of people with Spring and Summer birthdays. I wanted to have the Summer backyard birthday party or birthday picnic at the park. Or maybe a party at the zoo!

Oh, to not have to worry about inclement weather ruining my birthday dinners. What would it be like to enjoy my day without having to put on 20 layers and bracing myself before going outside? My daughter is one of those lucky people. More times than not, we’ve had her birthday parties outside.

When I met my husband, another one of the good weather Birthday people, he would rub it in about how nice the weather would be on his special day. No sympathy for his poor, cold wife.

But now, those freezing, cloudy birthdays are a thing of the past. After moving from Ohio, I had a couple of mild Spring-ish birthdays in Texas (it was in the upper 60s and low 70s) and I was in heaven. No coat. No blizzards. Just a beautiful day to enjoy.

And then we moved to Arizona. Oh. My. Goodness. I had my first birthday in the 80s and I about lost my mind. It was 85 degrees last year! Then it dawned on me. I now have a Summer birthday! Of course, the calendar says otherwise, but the weather! Oh the weather! Sweet beautiful Summer. Shorts weather. Sunglasses needed. I could do the picnic at the park or drive around with the top down! Although, let’s be real. I really don’t like what open air driving does to my hair. But I could do that now if I wanted.

And now that I’m back in Arizona, I shall never know a cold birthday again! As luck would have it, now my husband and daughter have the Arizona version of “winter” birthdays! It’s triple degree weather for them, so we usually have to drive up North to escape the heat if we want to be outdoors doing something. But for me and my two sons (who also have winter birthdays), we’ve got it good! Take that, hubby! Who’s laughing now?

Despite my winter birthday woes, every birthday has been a blessing. Regardless of the blizzards, below zero temps and cancelled plans, I’m grateful for each one. But I must say, it feels darn good to have a birthday now with predictable (and nice) weather. I’ll be basking in the sun tomorrow as I remember the ghosts of birthdays past. Life is good!