My plan for the day was simple. It involved eating snack foods all day while playing board games and cards with my family topped off with amazing cheesecake for dessert. That was it. That was truly the extent of my birthday wishes.

My sister prepared an amazing mimosa spread that she brought over for our breakfast enjoyment. She didn’t know that I don’t like champagne or that I wasn’t drinking right now. The drinks were enjoyed by many, but not as it turns out, by me.

And while I was super excited to go with my new daughter (in law) to get piercings together (her nose, my ear), it wasn’t what I really wanted to do on my actual birthday, but that’s the only day the guy I trusted was doing piercings and so off we went in the middle of the day to do that.

I didn’t even see my husband until nearly one o’clock that day because he had to work. As we got all the snacks and goodies out, we ended up having a very quiet, very private fight while surrounded by a houseful of company.

And I didn’t even sit down at the table to play any sort of cards or games until after four as we had a wedding to celebrate, which was truly wonderful to celebrate and all, but I kind of missed out on a huge chunk of my day of snacks and games.

I know a lot of my family will read this and even as I type, I keep back-pedaling to make sure I’m not offending anyone. My point is that it was just the one day that I thought I had asked so very little of the world and I still didn’t quite get what I had hoped for.

However.

My dad gave me an amazing gift that day. (So did so many others, it’s just that this one makes a point. See? Back-pedaling!) My dad wrote my biography. He included pictures and stories and memories that I had long forgotten or in some cases never knew. I can’t even imagine how many hours (days, weeks, months!) he spent working on it, nor can I even comprehend how it is that he even remembers all the stuff he wrote. And while I sat and read through the book the next morning – laughing, crying, remembering – I realized that my fiftieth birthday was exactly what life is like. I may have thought I had reasonable expectations for how my day would go, but then you throw in a loving, well-intentioned family, a far more exciting and life-changing event like a wedding, a miscommunication between spouses and, well, even the darn hours of a tattoo parlor and you end up with a birthday that reflects the best and more challenging pieces of what makes a life well-lived.

What really happened on my milestone birthday was that I spent time remembering where I came from and all the love and opportunities that helped make me who I am. I was surrounded the entire day by people who love me dearly. I got to laugh and cry and reminisce and create new memories. So while the day didn’t follow the script, I am so glad that it reminded me of what’s really important.

Cheesecake. Cheesecake is what’s really important.

(And love. I have been blessed with a whole lot of love.)