Bummer that he has to go to school on his birthday but both his parents have theirs in March so they can relate and probably lessen the sting of it.
The harder part I have with his birthday is its proximity to Thanksgiving because it causes me to send his card late. There’s the false sense of timing. “Oh hey, it’s next week and I’ll drop it in the mail during the time off I get during Thanksgiving.” Not really, USPS is shut down a couple days through the long weekend, I end up eating too much leading to sleeping and other distractions follow. However, Nick has been pretty forgiving on the card and bundled gifts. I usually try for either sending a great big one or send two since I also remember all the kids whose birthdays fell close to Christmas frequently were stiffed by adults.
Let’s see, he’s nine. He digs Star Wars just as I did at his age. Yet kids his age are ditching action figures sooner and are hooked on video games. I’ll have to find out through his dad if there’s a good gaming console in the house.