Birthday Dinners

A student and I were talking about her birthday, which had occurred earlier in the week, after school. I was interested to find out how she celebrated the event.

"It wasn't a big deal, ya know, since it was a school night, but we did have spaghetti and then later after my brother's practice we opened presents and had cake and ice cream."

"Did you get to choose the dinner?" I asked.

She smiled and nodded her head.

I returned the smile. "I used to always pick lasagna."

She was gone in a minute, off to catch up with her brother for the walk home, leaving me to reminisce about lasagna birthday dinners at my great aunt's apartment. Dinner was followed by cake, my favorite is devil's food with vanilla icing, and then finally presents. They were simple celebrations, but ones I still remember today.