Have you heard of “The Jesus Year?”

“As I see it, in your Jesus Year, you’re not meant to literally come to Jesus. Instead, you’re meant to allow Jesus to inform your sharable, vaguely spiritual, not-quite-midlife crisis. You’re #blessed, not Blessed.” -Jake Tuck, How to Kick Ass in Your Jesus Year

“The Jesus Year,” the 33rd year of life, falls awkwardly between major milestones such as driving privileges, legal drinking, rental car access, the quarter-life crisis (that struggled was real!), outliving iconic musicians, a vast expanse of non-child-bearing child-bearing years and then, hopefully, retirement and inevitably, death.

The good news is we can blame this millennial malaise on the baby boomers who passed the torch to an economy in shambles. “The basic milestones that young people of previous generations could expect to complete by the age of 30 – graduating school, leaving home, becoming financial independent and forming their own families – aren’t necessarily occurring in that standard fashion,” says Barbara Mitchell, who teaches sociology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver (see the full article).

It may be a desperate attempt to add meaning and inspiration to an otherwise negligible birthday, but I’ll take that false sense of inspiration with a side of biscuits and cake!

I’ve never been one to skimp on birthday attention, so after a more reflective, quiet and cozy escape to the Beaverdam Cabin, I invited friends to join me for brunch in our apartment, specifically, in the living room, where a long table replaced the couch and coffee table. Still feeling the inspiration of the woods, I decorated the table with navy tapers, deep green tones, moss, pine cones, loose garlands and wood tones, then filled that table with my friends.

Jesus Year or not, a birthday is the perfect nudge to seize the day and gather friends and family (or framily) for a slow Sunday of rich eats, endless refills of coffee and toasts of bubbly. I like to make these events a collaborative effort- both to make hosting more approachable and to challenge folks with my themes.

For this biscuit bar, I baked enough biscuits to feed a southern army, and I asked friends to bring their favorite biscuit toppings. I’ll be sharing more inspiration and tips for creating a biscuit buffet, as well as my recipe for this year’s tiny birthday cakes, the fulfillment of my ongoing tradition to bake a miniature cake for each year of my life. Go ahead and count- there were 33!

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