Why A January 1st Birthday is the BEST.

I cannot tell a lie ... I think I have the coolest birthday ever.

As do most folks who check my ID {thank goodness I still get ID'ed from time to time} -- my date of birth almost always gets a comment.

Here's my thought process:

Champagne is always part of my birthday celebration.
When do I officially turn a year older?  Midnight on New Years Eve.  What do I always had in hand, after turning 21 of course, at the moment of this age change?  Champagne!  Or, as Ian has recently started calling it, CHAMPERS.  Yes, stolen Real Housewife terminology, and he even says it in a prissy tone with his wrist flicked.  It's the most hilarious thing.

I celebrate with my favorites.
It's not always possible to spend a birthday with the people you love most ... sometimes, life just gets in the way.  Your birthday falls on a workday, you work a full day, you come home exhausted, and you may not have a celebration planned until the weekend.  In my case, I've always been able to spend it with people I love ... not always at the same time, but in the past I've spent it with sisters, parents, girlfriends, my husband, our friends.  Our NYE parties become a birthday celebration of sorts as the ball drops.

Never having to work on birthday.
January 1st is a holiday ... I've never had to work or go to school on my birthday!  Booyah!

January 1 birthday = easy excuse to dress up with rhinestones.
I love wearing rhinestones, and I have a great excuse to get dressed up each birthday night ... New Years Eve parties!

Source: rstyle.me via April on Pinterest

An excuse to be lazy all birthday day.
I may party big on New Years Eve as I turn a year older, but you can bet that I don't ask for a lot of celebration on the 1st.  We typically have a very casual day of taking it easy.  Last year we strolled around the Battery in Charleston, SC.  That was about as active as I've ever been on my birthday.  After a big night out and a few glasses of champagne (I mean, champers?), I'm content with just relaxing on the 1st.

Source: tumblr.com via April on Pinterest

First baby born = perks.
I get a lot of questions about whether I was the first baby born in the year 1982.  In the country?  No.  But in my county?  Yes!  I was born at almost 5pm in the afternoon but I was the first one born in Richland County.  My parents and I had our picture in The State, SC's newspaper, and they got all sorts of fun perks ... a small oriental rug (in my laundry room now), cloth diapering service, free dry cleaning, et cetera.  And I earned bragging rights for a lifetime!

So, there's my logic.  I think it's pretty solid.

***

I truly did have a perfect birthday this year.  We started out by sleeping in until 9:30 ... hallelujah for being able to turn my weekday alarm off.

The morning consisted of coffee, couch snuggling, and Dexter on Netflix.  We're absolutely addicted to this show and are about to wrap up season three.

Ian took me out for a nice birthday lunch at Village Tavern.  We sat at the bar, ordered a drink, and had big sandwiches and fries for lunch.

We tried to be slightly productive that day by going to Home Depot and TJ Maxx and then we quickly ended up right back in pajama pants at home.

For dinner, we cooked filet, lobster tails, and black eyed peas.  I know, I KNOW, no collard greens.  I told Ian that in 2013 we would not be rich but we would be lucky.  I think that's definitely better than rich and unlucky.

Oh, and we sat at the dining room table!  This is such an underused table, unfortunately ... but it's nice that we save it for special occasions.

Drake was so cute the whole dinner.  He loves seafood, and his cute head kept popping up with the hopes of getting some lobster.

Ian had a present on the table for me to open, and I got this cute camera strap cover for my new DSLR!  I was happy that he stuck with our plan of the camera being a joint Christmas and birthday gift for me.

Or so I thought.

The sweet man spoils me rotten.

Right as we were about to start cleaning up from the meal, he asked me to do something with the chair at the end of the table which he said was broken or messed up.  I scooted it out from the table to take a look, and there, sitting on the chair, was a small wrapped box.  A jewelry box.  That crazy guy bought me diamond stud earrings ... my first pair ever. 

I'm still swooning.