Sunday Fun Day- Traditions

As I have shared Sunday in my family was the day were all got together for dinner, yard/house work & fun at my grandparent's house. In memory of my childhood Sunday Fun Days I am going to share a little tradition.
First off let me clarify family, when I mention my family I don't just mean my parents and my younger brother. My family includes my grandparents, my aunts, uncles, cousins and their significant others. My normal family Sunday was my parents, myself and my brother, my aunt and her husband, my uncle and his wife, my other uncle and my cousin. So we rounded out to be TWELVE on a regular basis. Twelve, loud, opinionated people packed into my grandparent's house. Twelve people who put Christmas lights up all together every year, and took them down. Twelve loud crazy people decorating for Halloween each year, and Twelve crazy loud people who ate a whole lot of pasta each Sunday. And that was when it was just us, much of the time were joined by extended family my great aunts, great uncles & cousins pushing us over the dozen chairs we had normally crammed into the table.

Any way, Sunday was our get together day so on Sundays we always celebrated birthdays even if it was earlier in the week because we would all be together that day. My grandmother would make the most delicious chocolate cake topped with sweet chocolate icing. The birthday boy or girl got to eat on "The Red Plate" our birthday plate, it was you probably guessed it Red. The plate was obnoxious, it was this bright red with yellow and blue writing that stood out from the rest of the table which was decorated with cream and light green plates. But the stand out obnoxiousness of the plate just made the birthday celebration that much better! Dinner was always great but on our birthday Sunday it just stood in the way of that perfectly prepared chocolate cake calling our name a room away. And when it was time to take the cake out and celebrate we would all try to make our way into the kitchen where the cake was sitting to swipe a little of the icing. All three of us "kids", my younger brother, older cousin and I would fight with our uncles over who got the first taste of icing. And then we would all try to steal the first piece of cake. Now, traditionally speaking, the birthday boy or girl gets the first piece but in my family it was the thrill of the fight that was so great. You knew the birthday boy/girl would get it but everyone loved the challenge and the joking and poking fun that went with it.

Mom's Heart Shaped Choc. Cake 

My grandmother still has the "RED PLATE" but it doesn't really come out anymore unless someone requests it. The last time I saw it was my husband's first birthday with the family. And my Grandmother still makes her famous chocolate birthday cakes but not as much now that we have all gotten older and spread out into our own lives. She does however, still have a shelf full of chocolate cake mix just in case!