In case you missed it this past weekend we celebrated the birthday of a very very important person. In fact until we actually celebrated his birthday I never truly appreciated just how important this person is. Does anyone have an idea who I'm talking about?

Me!

Ok now in all seriousness...

Last week I turned 48 years old. My birthday is technically on the 15th of December except with everyone's busy schedules we actually decided to congratulate my birthday on Saturday. Now I've never been a "birthday person" and in fact in recent years I've strictly forbidden my family from making any sort of "big deal" out of my birthday. All I ever want from them is a simply greeting a couple of words of well wishes and for them to let me understand that they love me. I certainly love them. But I never really want anyone to spend any of their hard-earned cash on me especially my kids.

This year my wife INSISTED that we were going to go out to one of my favorite restaurants and have a nice party with only our immediate family. She told me in no uncertain terms that this in no way amounted to ANYTHING love a "big deal".

She was right. But it certainly was a very nice meal and a lot of fun. To be honest with you I'm happy we got together. Even though it was to honor my birthday I'd have been just like happy had we gotten together for no good reason at all. But we did celebrate my special day and since of that my family members took a few moments to say a few things about why I'm special. When my mother had a moment she commented on how proud she is of me that at age 47 I had gone back to academy to secure my AA degree online at St. Petersburg College and how I'm now continuing to job on my collegiate career by going behind my bachelor's degree from Penn Foster College.

That mean a lot to me. And even though it was my birthday it would have meant just as much to me had she told me that on any old day of the year.