I love birthdays.  There are greetings from all the expected folks.  Real cards from Mother, Joannie, and Stevie.  And how many people on the morning of their 72nd birthday are lucky enough to get a phone call from their mother?  Like all mothers, mine loves remembering the day her babe was born.

Of course, daughters and Facebook friends send messages all day long.  Friends make plans to go out to lunch every day during the octave, and I found beautiful flowers, a lovely note, and a butternut squash from a garden on my porch.  And cake from Konditorei plays a part.

But I was a little surprised yesterday to find this on the Google browser:

How do they know?  Even the Wells Fargo ATM monitor seemed to have received the memo and flashed greetings when I made a deposit.

But maybe my best present was when one of my Citizenship students arrived for class to proudly tell us that he had taken his citizenship test earlier in the day and had passed.  I don’t know who was prouder, he or I.  He is going to be such a good citizen.  What a gift!