My younger sister's birthday is in November. Let me tell you how we celebrated it this year. (^O^)

First: preparing her gift. I tend to start buying items about a month before the day, and hide them. (^_^;)

This year, I got my sister a pocket watch and a nail polish kit!

I think it came out to about 4,000 yen total. I figured my sister would need a watch when she's taking mock exams, and remembered how when I was in junior high, I was interested in nail art but wasn't able to buy nail polish. Since I'm "big sis," I think I was able to bring insight to my gift choices that our parents couldn't (｀・ω・´), thank you very much.

When buying presents, I make sure to choose a) something that will be used up and something that can be used for a long time, and b) something big and something small. ☆⌒(*＾∇゜)V A good idea, no?

Since our parents are busy with work, we celebrate birthdays the weekend after the birthday itself. (If the birthday is on a weekday, I wait restlessly until the weekend to say "Happy Birthday." (Ha, ha.))

Our family usually goes out for birthday celebrations.

This year, we went to the Shiki Theater Company's theater, Natsu, in the Oimachi district of Tokyo. Our purpose was to see the musical, "Beauty and the Beast," which is also a popular Disney film.

My parents and I, who weren't even celebrating our own birthdays, had a ball, saying things like, "I didn't know this is how the story went!" and "I wish I could be invited to a dinner show like this!"

After the show, we shared our thoughts on the performance as we headed to a restaurant in a department store. The place had all-you-can-eat, freshly-baked mugwort, chesse, and chocolate bread, which suited my sister -- who has a hearty appetite -- very well.

There, we finally toasted to her birthday, and got out our presents.

My parents got my sister an iPod Shuffle. (I wanted one, too...)

My sister seemed pretty happy with my presents, too, which was a relief. ε= (*^o^*) Phew.

After cake for dessert, the birthday party came to an end. It was a happy day for the entire family.