Christmas....

“Christmas is like candy; it slowly melts in your mouth sweetening every taste bud, making you wish it could last forever.” 

~ Richelle E. Goodrich

Enjoying the lights

We finally got to see the ERDAJT holiday light display.....just a beautiful sight to behold.

“Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful. ” 

~ Norman Vincent Peale

Sibling love

The only thing that seems to have changed over time, is Alex's reaction to love from his sisters. I pray that as time marches forward he will realize the gift that it is.   I am so thankful that these three love each other...most days.

"The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another’s desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together."

 ~Erma Bombeck

12 -13 -14 -15!

It seems like just yesterday I was holding my baby boy in my arms.  It seems like just yesterday, he was new and we were the only ones awake in the wee hours of the morning and my sleep deprived mind was wandering all sorts of places while I tried to get him back to sleep and I somehow realized that in the year 2014, Alex's birthdate would be 12-13-14...and he would be 15!!  And today was it!!

15! It hardly seems possible.  I have often said that Alex has been my most challenging child to raise.  Every child has it's challenges, but I got through the raising of the girls, pretty much unscathed.  They are girls, I was a girl...I get where they are coming from, the things that they like, what makes them tick.  But this boy that I was given....was just absolutely alien to me...his whole way of looking at life, his activity level, his way of thinking...the attitudes and choices that he made...all of it has been absolutely foreign to me.

Alex hasn't been what some would call the typical "boy"...not a big sports fan, he loved technology and sci-fi/fantasy at an early age.  He loved to build things and if I had a penny for every lego piece I have stepped on in his life, I would be a rich woman, indeed.

He's been high-strung, yet funny and perceptive with an amazing vocabulary...yet doing well in school has rarely been the priority.  He has given me more than a few anxious moments...

But at 15, I see signs of maturity....of responsibility.  I see him taking things seriously, I listen to the things he is interested in, his plans for the future, the issues that concern him.  I watch him interacting with others.  He is a little socially awkward, but what kid isn't these days....he's smart, perceptive, intuitive, witty...and he is still a monster in the morning, and he still procrastinates and he still has attitudes at precisely the wrong moment...but he's getting there.  Little by little I see him trying things and stepping outside of his comfort level and growing....and there it is......a light at the end of the tunnel.

And as that light grows brighter, so will the reality that he will be growing up and moving on with his own life...my baby.  So for now, I'll enjoy him being 15 and being too funny for his own good, and computer crazed.  I'll enjoy the activities he becomes involved with, and the people that are part of his life....and I'll enjoy all the amazing things about him....and continue to help him work on those rough edges...and I'll love him so much....and I'll be amazingly proud...although there will be days I will have to remind myself of these feelings.  But I won't wish it away....because all too soon....he'll be all grown up.

“Growing up is hard, love. Otherwise everyone would do it.” 

~ Kim Harrison

tomorrow

This little guy turns 15 tomorrow!! Don't know where the time has gone...and he's given me a few gray hairs....but I wouldn't trade him!!

"Every year on your birthday, you get a chance to start new."

~ Sammy Hagar

Joy

We enjoyed Alex's first high school concert....and one of  the bands played "In the Bleak Midwinter", my very favorite!!  As you can see, Alex is so thrilled that I decided I needed a photo to document the event.  I am so proud of my kids who continue to be proud of each other and support each other and bring joy to each other....most of the time.

“To get the full value of joy you must have someone to divide it with.” 

~ Mark Twain

In front of the tree...

Never worry about the size of your Christmas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall. 

~Larry Wilde