Dear Diary: My Family's Birthday Tradition

I am a bit excited what my brother will bring here in the house today for his birthday. His birthday actually is tomorrow and he just wants a separate celebration together with me and my parents but I bet he has a separate party in store for his family which would be a double celebration for my niece and nephew as they would go along with their daddy and mommy here.

I am not used to celebrate our birthdays because our parents just doesn't have any separate budget for a party. We just survived because my father is just very industrious, had worked abroad for about ten years or so with a mechanic skill as a trade which is not really a good-paying job.

So my mother when our birthdays comes around would greet us sweetly and then would prepare the traditional stir-fried noodles which is rooted from the Chinese belief that it prolongs life as noodles have long strands that symbolized a long life.

Only now that my brothers and sister married and have a job and in-laws that buys us cakes and celebrates with us that our birthdays are celebrated with a bit of "grandness" with all the food that my siblings contribute especially for my mother and father's birthdays.

My mother also insists for my birthday to be celebrated no matter how I tell her not to for the reason that I am just a failure for the family, a blight that gave our family a hardship and heartache. But my mother t]just tells me that she brought me in this world in that day of the month so after greeting me she would then prepare some stir-fried noodles.