Its 31 days to my birthday. A milestone. A beginning of a new decade and an end to the previous five. Am I keeping track by drawing lines and crossing them out every 7^th or 10^th day on a wall? No, I’m not. Thanks to my dear husband, I know exactly how many days there are to my 60^th birthday (whoa… that’s old).

He surprised me in the nicest possible way. He knows I love birthdays. More so mine. I love presents. Not necessarily expensive stuff. I just love the excitement of opening anything wrapped up in printed paper.  Birthdays are a big deal to me. Big enough that I have my own self-declared birthday month. It seems such a shame to restrict this special celebration to just one day.

Every year, I do a song and dance about my birthday. This year, my husband went one, or rather many many times, better. He kicked off my birthday countdown on Jan 23. Precisely 60 days to the big Six-O.  24 blue and red little drawers. Stacked on eight tiers. Were seating on the floor with a card of Pooh looking up at a honey pot. The words Birthday Countdown and numbers greeted me.

He explained that each drawer contained presents, and was sealed with two sticky tapes. I could pick any drawer I wanted. Any colour. Any tier. Over 20 days. From 20 drawers. The four bonus drawers. I could open and have at anytime. The drawers will again be filled with presents for the second and third 20-day countdowns (Its now my second 20-day countdown).  What? Bonus? 20+20+20 days = 60 presents. Plus 4+4+4 = 12 bonus presents. Wow, my head spun, in a nice way.

He said the pleasure I got from my two 2020 advent calendars (12 days of Godiva and M&S Percy Pig advent calendars) prompted him to produce his version of a birthday countdown calendar. A pyramid of drawers filled with varied surprises that would, hopefully, be fun to open and happily enjoyed every day. I smiled. I cried. I was happy. I was touched. I was grateful. To my husband for thinking of the idea. Buying so many little and big presents particularly as it gets more and more difficult as we get older. And, creating – a look forward to today day – leading up to my birthday.

Since the countdown began, I genuinely look forward to each new day. I feel like a kid in a toy shop or a chocolate/cake/ice-cream store. It has and continues to be so much fun to choose either a blue or a red drawer, and enjoy the daily surprises. Of course, it helps that each drawer always has at least two to three little or medium sized chocolates. My face never fails to light up and I never tire of eating M&M’s, Hershey’s Kisses, Dime, Cadbury, Nips, Ghirardelli, M&S chocolate coated Brazil Nuts (this was quite exceptional) and Oreos. Yum.

In addition to the chocolates, the drawers invariably contain fun things that I like and actually use. To date, my gifts have included chocolate shaped notebooks, memo and note pads, stickers, pop socks, a sparkly and a sea-blue nail polish (I use both colours on alternate toe nails) and an egg-white separator, donut pan and measuring spoons (now that I’m into baking and cooking).

Of all of them, my favourites, so far, are Winnie the Pooh – The Complete Collection of four stories, almost edible looking donut shaped erasers, a cuddly little lamb called Bean Bags, and a DVD player plus DVDs. The Pooh collection was a bonus gift that didn’t fit into the drawers. A clue with an arrow led me to where the books were waiting in the pantry. Like a treasure hunt. What fun? I never had nor read Pooh as a child. These books of poems and stories were a treat to read.

The DVD player was a thoughtful and useful present. I am now able to jump up and down and dance to my new and decades-old Denise Austin exercise VCD/DVDs. Many of my VCD/DVDs weren’t working on the previous player. I assumed wrongly that the tapes were too old and damaged. I even tried buying them online from Denise Austin’s websites but they were no longer available.

The chocolates, I eat almost immediately. The chocolate shaped notebook, I use to keep track of the date/day, presents and daily activities, at least for 60 days. Especially as each day seems to morph into the next since Covid-19. The countdown to my birthday has given me a lightness of heart. A sense of gratitude. A feeling of excitement. And, something really nice and happy to look forward to each day.

In the words of Pooh – What day is it? It’s today. My favourite day. Indeed, it is.