I felt so very loved on my birthday this year.  And by “on my birthday” I mean Thursday through Thursday (my birthday was Tuesday).  What made me feel most loved was simply people remembering and saying happy birthday (which I need to remember, since I’m not that great at remembering birthdays outside my immediate family).  E-mails, phone calls, Facebook messages, and just saying hello and happy birthday did that.  Many people this year went way beyond that.

Pictures are here.

I felt very spoiled and appreciated by mailed packages and/or cards from Megan, Max, Anna, Gram, and Granzi and Granpop.  Eileen hosted a birthday party for me at her place that included John, Sergio and Marcia, my dad (and my mom via phone who was prohibited by her doctor from coming because she was too contagious to be around her pregnant daughter), my GREAT Uncle Frank, and Margaret (a friend from church).  My mom still made my favorite cake and sent it along with my dad, which was a hit.

On my actual birthday, I woke up to a card and a gift from Sergio and Marcia, with my breakfast all set up.  At school, I was sung to several times, and during one class a whole group of seniors whom I had taught last year or the previous year burst into my room with a beautiful cake, singing.  I won’t post the photo of all of them since posting pictures of my students can cause legal issues, but I will post the photo that Sarah took of the absolutely delicious cake that Kent made for me!  One of the silly things that I do to attempt to make physics more engaging, memorable, and amusing is toss a small plush panda in the air and talk about various aspects of his motion as he’s in the air.  He’s the Freefall Panda, and he amuses my students.  So thanks to Kent, Spencer, Chris M, Chris G, Dan, Allison, Mike, Sophie, Anne, Greg, Angela, Sarah, Dave, Christina, Annie, and the guy I didn’t know who came during their lunch when they could have left campus just to wish me a happy birthday.  Kate, my 9th period class secretary (a person elected by the class at the beginning of the year whose main job is to keep communication open between my students and me, but who also celebrates everyone’s birthdays) made me brownies. Shauna stopped by to see me and drop off a hilarious card and a bracelet about being sisters.

John took me out to dinner at Penang, a nearby Thai and Malaysian restaurant that we go to the most often.  John bought me my favorite kind of chocolate (and, I would be very remiss to neglect–a positively gorgeous and fun bike that was delivered in June and is even blue to boot.  It was delivered in June   Sergio and Marcia came to dinner with us at my request to help celebrate.  It turns out that the hostess is in their English class and her dad is the chef, so we got personalized recommendations, especially good service and conversation, and dessert with a candle and the entire Penang staff singing to me.

All of this special treatment bears a stark contrast to the birth of our savior so long ago.  Every life, including my own, is a miracle.  But it pales in comparison to God in flesh, living a life without ever doing anything wrong, being betrayed by one of his closest friends, willingly submitting himself to separation from God and taking the punishment that I deserve, going to Hell, and rising from the dead to release the hold of death upon us.  Whereas I was born in a well-equipped hospital to married parents and treated to every comfort, the king of all creation’s humble beginnings included being born to an unwed teenage mother.  In a stable. In a foreign land.  Shortly before having to flee because people were trying to kill him.  C.S. Lewis compares the absolute humility of God becoming man to you willingly becoming a crab or a slug.   That sacrifice — his first of many — is what we celebrate this Christmas.  Merry Christmas.