Isn’t it funny how the same dates crop up time and time again in a life? How one grandparent’s birthday becomes the anniversary of another grandparent’s death? How marriages start and businesses are created on the same day?

And how often, with 365 days out of the year to choose from, children choose to be born on the same day as another relative?

In my case, my Mother, who for sixty one years had a birthday that was entirely her own, and my Daughter, who managed to change that 21 years ago when she popped out at 6.10 in the morning of the 19th February having kicked off a bare 90 minutes earlier and caused me to ring my Mother with a garbled “Happy Birthday, Mum! Oh, and by the way, can you come and baby sit the boys, because this one is going to be born NOW and there’s nothing I can do about that”.

I love both the women who sandwich me, a May Born cuckoo, between them. I’ve known them both for ever: all my life in one case, all her life in the other. And in that wonderful, genetic material transfer miracle kind of way, I find it remarkable that a small part of my daughter was, indeed, present in my Mother’s womb as she conceived and carried me, since a female foetus is born carrying all the eggs she will ever release over her lifetime. If that’s not the miracle of Mother Nature linking us all together, I don’t know what is.

Anyway, we celebrated 82 and 21 last night, with a meal, flowers and photographs. And I honestly tried to get one photo where the two of them looked good together, but either one was talking or the other was laughing. Whatever. I owe the woman I am today to both of them.

How to Hygge the British Way is my gift to the world. I don’t get paid for writing it, I’m not in it for the kudos, financial rewards, to become an influencer, work with brands or otherwise make any money from the blog. That’s why there are no ads, and any products I mention and recommend have either been gifted to me or bought by me with my everyday wages or donations from supporters. Every book I review has been bought and read by me, unless stated otherwise.

I do get a couple of pennies each time someone buys from the Amazon links on my page, as an Amazon Affiliate, but otherwise if you’d like to support me, I like to give something back in return. That’s why I write books. It always feels good if you get a book back in return for some money. You can find a full list of my books at my Author’s Page on Amazon, but especially recommended for this time of year are:

Cosy Happy Hygge: Setting up a rhythm to life and rituals to enjoy it to make for a more balanced life that handles waves and storms better. Lent is a season of rituals and resets. The book has small and easy ways to make your life flow with grace and happiness, which lead to more hygge.

Happier: Probably my most personal book, it’s the story of how I used hygge and the little things in life to help boost my happiness. I still go back and reread to remind myself what I need to do to be a happy human. And it’s always the little things.

And my Christmas books are still all available now to buy ready for next season: 

Have Yourself a Happy Hygge Christmas is the basic, all round Christmas hygge book, with advice and ideas on how to make hygge (the cosiest way to be mindful and live in the moment) a large part of all your celebrations.

Enjoying a Self-Care Christmas is about taking time to look after yourself at the busiest season of all and is only available in ebook, with its own advent calendar of selfcare ideas.

 Celebrating a Contagious Christmas was my answer to Christmas in Lockdowns in 2020 but might (sadly) prove useful for a few more years to come. It has advice on celebrating small scale, and keeping a Christmas flexible. I’m itching to write a new Christmas book, on simplicity, frugality, minimalism and making the meaning of your Christmas more significant, but time, time, time…

If you’d like to support me, but don’t want to buy a book, I have a Paypal.Me account as Hygge Jem. Every little helps, so even a few pence goes towards the books, goods and courses I use and recommend on the site. I’m grateful for every little bit that brings me closer to my dream of full-time writing, and I know I couldn’t still be writing if it weren’t for the support of many readers and friends out there. Thank you all for every little bit of support, emotional, physical and financial, you give me.

If you’ve enjoyed this article, don’t forget to share it or save it so others can enjoy reading, thinking about and living hygge as well.

The photo between post and promotions is a photo by Pascal Debrunner on Unsplash. I love the snowdrops, such a harbinger of Spring, while the colours behind make me think sunrise and the start of the day. And the Header is by Rod Long on Unsplash. I love multigenerational photos like this: the wrinkles of age, the silken smoothness of youth. Life goes on.