Happy May Everything!

I'm not fond of the month of May. Yes, the weather is really shaping up, and there's a 3-day weekend towards the end, but take a look at the rest of the month:

Parent's anniversary (mine)

Mother's day (my mom, MIL, step MIL, and now, me)

Niece's birthday (other side of country)

Father's birthday

Brother-in-law's birthday (also other side of country – niece's dad)

Husband's birthday

Mother-in-law's birthday

Step-sister-in-law's birthday

Memorial Day

Oh, yeah, and my birthday is somewhere in that lot too.

 

It makes it a bit of a mess. We have to coordinate birthday dinners with 3 sets of parents, Mother's Day dinners with 2 sets, get a dozen gifts (more on this later), try to be "on" for all of previously mentioned get-togethers, be appreciative of gifts received (again, see later), send thank you notes (which I haven't actually done in at least a decade because I have horrific manners & no, my mother didn't raise me this way) and now we have to do it all with a very schedule-regimented toddler and an infant. Oh, and get some sleep in there somewhere. Plus all the normal things we do day-to-day each month, but with a week less to do them in because of all the damned get-togethers. Just thinking about it exhausts me.

 

So to make life easier, one year I created May Everything Day. Yes, I know, I made another whole day to celebrate, but it actually cuts down on several of the get-togethers. How? Re-read the name of the day. May Everything. So instead of getting together 5 times with my parents, we just do one day, and celebrate mother's day for two, anniversary for them, and 3 birthdays. It's a coup, I tell you. We kind of do this unofficially with the Hubster's mom and her hubby (love him to death! – oh, her too, sorry) because they live almost an hour and a half away – not a big deal until you add little kids that don't like car seats. And we don't celebrate Mom's day for the dad-in-law's wife – her own kids can do that – and they've finally consolidated to 1 dinner for 3 birthdays (though it's always her son's wife's favorite flavors for cake and ice cream), so we're now down to 3 days for the month.

 

As long as it's not the 3 days of Memorial Day weekend, we're good.