"There’s that moment, right before you blow out the candles on your birthday cake, that moment you have a fleeting sense of something not so happy and not so birthday. Maybe it comes from understanding the order of things, because I know Sophie doesn’t feel it yet. When I was her age, I didn’t feel it, either. But once you understand the order of things, you know that when the presents are opened, you’ll never again be able to wonder what they might be. And when the candles are blown out, it’s time to eat the cake. And when the cake is eaten, there’s nothing left but to say thank you and send everyone home. I still like cake and I still like presents. It’s just that now, there’s one little moment of sadness right before I blow out the candles—that one little moment
where I peek into the future and say good-bye to another birthday, even before it’s over."
This is probably my favorite quote from How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found. I always get that feeling myself on Christmas Eve when I'm ready to go to bed, and even though I'm excited that in the morning it will be Christmas, I'm always a little sad to know that soon it will all be over. Do you ever feel this way?
