Today is my dad’s birthday. His grandchild (our son) calls him Papa. My dad is the father of seven daughters and only two sons. Boys were a novelty and hard to come by in my family so when my husband and I found out that my parents first grandchild was going to be boy, we knew my dad would be pleased. The first time our son “helped” celebrate his Papa’s birthday was on my dad’s fiftieth birthday and our son’s baptism. I asked my dad if it would be okay for us to have our son baptized on his special day and my dad said “what better way to celebrate my birthday!”. In my opinion one’s fiftieth birthday is kind of a big deal and I wanted to make my dad’s birthday special. So I order him a special cake (white wedding cake, his favorite) to go along with the “baptism cupcakes” (the next day was my sister’s eighteenth birthday so I ordered her a special cake too). Needless to say, we had lots of reasons to celebrate that day.
It is two years later and we are celebrating my dad’s birthday and we are expected our first daughter. My dad is excited about his two new granddaughters (my sister is also expecting a girl) on the way three months apart. I wanted to do something special for my dad so we made plans.
My dad and I have always had a special connection through my baking; he loves sweets and I love sweets! Growing up I frequently made my dad chocolate chip cookies which he seems to crave! So for his birthday I made him homemade-fresh-out-of-the-oven chocolate chip cookies. He came over and we (including his grandson) shared warm chocolate chip cookies and big glasses of milk. I sent him home with his own stash of my very best homemade chocolate chip cookies and a quart of milk to enjoy later along with a birthday card designed and decorated by his first grandchild who was excited to say “Happy Birthday Papa!” He was even more excited to share cookies with his Papa!