My 30th Birthday Celebration(s)

My 30th birthday was one for the record books, that’s for sure. It was a whole week of celebrating me with both my friends and my family.

It may come as a surprise with how shy and reserved I can be, but I love celebrating my birthday. I love being showered with attention by my friends and family. My birthday is probably the only time of the year that I love the attention on me, so I relish in it.

I also take my birthday very seriously. I mean, it’s the one day set aside for me, so I might as well live it up, yes? Being born around Thanksgiving means I often have the day off from work, but every now and then, my birthday falls during the week after Thanksgiving like it did this year. It was on a Tuesday and I knew I was going to take that Tuesday off work, so I decided to treat myself by taking the Monday off work, too. This means, as everyone was moaning and groaning about going back to work after the Thanksgiving holiday, I was sleeping in and lazing around. Yeah, I was pretty happy with my decision to give myself a super long, six-day weekend. 😉

Here’s how I celebrated my birthday this year!

Monday

On Monday evening, after a fully lazy day where I simply read my book and worked on the blog posts I published last week, I met up with one of my best friends for dinner. While she would be the one to plan my little birthday bash later on in the week, she still wanted to treat me to dinner, just the two of us. We met up at a steakhouse and it was the perfect time of catching up, after not seeing one another for a few weeks. After our dinner, we decided to round out the night with froyo, which was an A+ decision on our parts! It was the perfect kickoff to my birthday week!

Tuesday

Tuesday was my actual birthday and I had a full day of happiness planned. I started by sleeping in and waking up slowly, reading my book and snuggling with Dutch. Around noon, I headed to my favorite nail salon to get a pedicure. I haven’t had a pedicure in maybe three months and my feet were seriously needing some attention. I opted for one of their specialty pedicures that included a paraffin wax treatment that felt soooo luxurious. I read my book while getting my pedicure, and enjoyed every minute of my time in the salon.

After my pedicure, it was time for a massage! I recently discovered that I actually do like massages, but I just need to be clear with the massage therapist that I’m looking for something relaxing with light pressure. I had booked an hour-long relaxation massage for 1:30, and it was so very nice to spend an hour lost in my thoughts and the calming music and the therapeutic touch of another person. I’m really glad I took the time to get a massage on my birthday because it really felt like the ultimate treat.

Once I was finished with my pedicure, my next stop was Starbucks for a peppermint mocha. I relaxed on one of their comfortable couches, sipped my mocha, and finished the book I was reading. I also read a few pages of a new romance while I finished my drink. Perfect!

I came home after my visit to Starbucks and took Dutch on a nice, long walk before taking some time to lay on my bed and read the romance I started at Starbucks. Then it was time to get ready for the evening festivities: dinner with my family!

Unfortunately, my brother and his family couldn’t make it because my brother had to unexpectedly work late. So it was just my mom and stepdad and we met at an Italian restaurant for dinner where I ordered the most delicious peach sangria and ate my weight in bread before dinner. As you should! During dinner, my brother texted me to see about meeting up for dessert. He felt terrible about missing my birthday dinner, and I was super touched that my brother took the time to see me after he had had a long and stressful work day. It meant a lot.

Saturday

Saturday was my birthday party with my girlfriends! My best friend, B., organized the whole event without me, which I am so damn grateful for. A party planner, I am not. I get way too overwhelmed, so I’m glad she threw herself into planning the party and making it happen for me.

Originally, I planned a big shindig for my 30th birthday with a huge guest list, renting out an event space, having themed drinks… I wanted to go all out. And then I realized that isn’t me. I’m not the type to go all out like that. I don’t particularly enjoy parties like that, so why would I force myself to have a party like that for myself? Instead, I opted for a small party with five of my closest girlfriends. The menu would be light appetizers and pizza and cupcakes. The itinerary would be games and laughter and funny selfies. And that’s exactly what happened!

We started the fun around 6:30 at B.’s house where we snacked on apps before the pizza arrived. Then we gathered in the living room to eat pizza and I told the story of a hilariously bad date I had on Friday. After that, it was time to play some games! B. had bought this fun game called Jackbox, which is played on the TV and on your phone. My friend’s Jackbox purchase came with five games to play and our favorite was Quiplash, which was a twist on Cards Against Humanity. Basically, there would be two prompts displayed on your phone (like, “Queen Elizabeth’s wrestling name”). The prompts were different from person-to-person, but each prompt would be answered by two people in the group and those answers would go head-to-head in the battle round. Once everyone had submitted their answers (I think you had 90 seconds), it was time to battle it out! The prompts and answers would be displayed one-by-one on the TV and you’d select the answer you liked best on your phone. I hope I’m explaining this in a way that makes sense! It was just super interactive and hilarious and we didn’t even break out the other games we brought to play! Jackbox was too much fun!

After an hour or so of playing Jackbox, it was time for cupcakes and presents! The girls sang to me and then we noshed on some delicious Publix cupcakes (mmm!). Then, I opened my presents and my girls outdid themselves. Between the poem my friend made me of my name, the “30 Reasons We Love Stephany” print, all of the bath bombs, the cute bag of Sephora goodies that my friend got me because she loves how I reveal my Sephora PLAY box every month (I was commissioned to reveal the goodies in the same kind of Instagram Stories video soon, haha), tons of books, dachshund socks, an anchor Tervis, and more stuff that I know I am forgetting… I don’t know how I got so lucky to have thoughtful friends like them! Everything was so perfect.

Once the presents had been unwrapped, we played Jackbox for a few more hours before calling it quits around 10:45. (And yes, we were all very pleased with ourselves for staying up so late. We’re all grandmas at heart, haha.)

I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday celebration. Honestly. I don’t think I would have had nearly as much fun if I had done a big shindig. This small get-together was perfect and I will be forever grateful to my friends for showering me with so much love and affection.

I think my thirties are off to a wonderful start. But let me tell you, my next decade of birthdays has a lot to live up to.