I loved the video birthday message that my family & friends made for me so much!

He said

There were two parts to what we did for Emelia’s birthday this year. The first was a present much bigger than we are used to getting for her, but she was okay with it being Christmas slash Birthday gift, and given that it has been a very difficult year, we stepped a little heavier this year and she got her much-wanted iPhone 11 in purple. Now, mind you it was a joint gift that included gift cards and money she had gotten from aunts, uncles and grandparents and she was super grateful for all the generosity. And we’re also able to get money for her very well cared for old phone to also help offset the cost. All-in-all she was a very happy girl when it finally arrived on Friday.

But the second gift was a part that I was surprised at just how much Emelia loved. As we shared last week, we put together a video of friends and family wishing Emelia a Happy Birthday. What we thought might be a nice five or so minute turned into a wonderful, seventeen minute long video from friends & family far and wide that had Emelia laughing the loudest we’ve seen her laugh in a while, blown away by the friends from gymnastics that shared the message, and had her thanking us for the second it ended. In fact she even asked to have a copy of the video of her own immediately after.

So while Tuesday was the big day it was much different than any other year because of COVID-19. She didn’t get to be at school with her friends. We couldn’t take her out for a special dinner. And there wasn’t birthday party anywhere on our calendar. But, what we did do was have a Taco Tuesday meal together, and then after dinner we shared the video with her. And, then we had the cake that she and Danielle made. While it wasn’t birthday we wanted for her, we made the best of it we could. And there were a lot of smiles and laughter in her day which was all could ask for.

And this week, the news came on Thursday around noon that the kids will be returning to school tomorrow. I messaged Emelia to see if they had made mention of it in her online lesson that day, and they had. Sure, it is weird they’re returning when we’re still lockdown, the rationale behind it is the spread in our community is not happening in schools and the numbers are declining again—back to where they needed to be. Emelia is happy to be retuning to in-school learning as she was finding the online learning a bit too much, and back to the somewhat normalcy of being (masked) with her friends.

We’re so happy that her birthday turned out the success that it was! Happy Birthday Emelia!

She said

Well, I will say this birthday isn’t one Emelia will soon forget, it wasn’t the birthday she wanted for her last year in grade school. She had really hoped that the lockdown would end before her birthday and allow her to be in school to see her friends face to face, even if they were masked. We weren’t able to give her a birthday party, no special meal out with friends or family. So, we decided with what we weren’t spending on a birthday party or dinner out we would move it to the birthday budget, add in some amazing generous gifts from her extended family we were able to get Emelia her phone. She is over the moon.

We were able to make her birthday as special as we could, we had her favourite dinner, cake that she and I made together and time together as a family. She even got to see the twins for a long walk together and a bit of sledding on the local sledding hill. She said it was an amazing birthday and was overwhelmed by the video that everyone contributed to. She kept asking how we pulled it off, she was shocked by how many people contributed and laughed so hard and some of the family videos. I am so glad she got to see how special she to so many people. We wanted to say thank you to everyone. So thank you to everyone.

Happy Birthday again Emelia, we hope you know how amazing you are, how loved you are. Hope that 14 is magical for you!