I celebrated my 26th birthday this past weekend. All weekend, naturally.

My coworkers got me a cake on Friday!

Oh, what a photogenic beast I am...

My friend Candice made me these ridiculously awesome Twitter pillows!

How jealous are you right now?

And I spent the majority of the weekend at a cottage on an island with my boyfriend and my dog and new friends…

Best. Weekend. Ever.

I don’t know what it was about this year in particular, but I couldn’t downplay how extremely blessed I feel right now even if I wanted to. Every message – be it a wall post, tweet, text or phone call – meant the world to me. I’m not big on lavish and crazy parties so I was more than happy with keeping things low-key and real. I got to spend my time with people I care about (and who I know care about me) – what more do you need?

(As an aside, you know you’ve got the best friends in the world when you’re getting gifts like this…

Magical.

Thank you, Jacob!)

I know how good I’ve got it. I’ve got a great life filled with great people. I like taking the time to express it. This is a perspective I never want to lose.