Social Media has changed the way we celebrate birthdays. We don’t have to remember birthdays anymore, Facebook and Google+ will tell us when birthdays are coming up. This is even easier when your phone calendar is synced with your Facebook calendar. In an age when it is so easy to shoot off a quick Happy Birthday! message to someone, those people who take the time to go above and beyond this stand out even more.

Joe Ginese posted this week about being generous with your time – and I cannot think of a time I’ve appreciated this more than I did yesterday when I celebrated my birthday. One of my top Love Languages is Quality Time. For me this means I feel loved when people take time out of their busy lives to think of me or to spend with me. (Find out your Love Language here, there are 5 in total)

From the cards that featured quotes from my favorite author to signatures from an entire department:

Birthday Cards

To the wall posts that went above and beyond the two or three word messages:

The homemade cake made from my supervisor. (Bonus: It wasn’t chocolate!)

The collection of ThrowBackThursday photos from high school in my honor:

High School Winter Formal (that’s me on the left!)

My southern friends and family who celebrated lunch and sent me pictures:

Birthday Lunch

The necklace from my sister-in-law with my One Word Resolution engraved on it:

Joy Necklace

The friends who joined me for dinner.

Birthday Dinner

And of course, the tweets and facebook messages that rolled in all day:

Happy 24 Hours of Constant Facebook Notifications Day

No doubt, yesterday was filled with Joy. Thank you to everyone who took time out of their own busy days to help me celebrate mine and for knowing me so well. I look forward to reciprocating and finding ways to make others feel joy and love on their birthdays.

How have you been generous with your time recently?