December: The Birthdays

All the December things have happened. 

Well, almost.

As I type this, I'm sitting at our cabin kitchen table. It's Dec. 31st and we have yet to have our end-of-year games and root-beer floats (plus we will go see the giant Christmas-tree bonfire and fireworks in Garden City tonight), so there's still some tiny bit of December (and 2024) ahead of us. 

But that's for another post.

Back to the December things that have already happened. 

For this post we will focus on: the birthdays.

Mine was just three days ago. I don't have pictures of the birthday exactly. I do have these ...

It occurred to Abe, about an hour or two before the sun would be setting, that my birthday might be his last chance to go rock climbing in December. (We were leaving for Bear Lake the next day and then, by the time we returned, the month would be over.) This mattered because he was on a streak of 38 months straight of rock climbing at least once a month (a significant feat when you live in Northern Utah throughout the winter). It seemed awfully sad to break such a record. So Jesse, faithful brother that he is, agreed to come with him in the wet and cold for a quick climb.

Afterwards they realized they'd locked their keys in the car. 

They walked to a house to borrow a hanger that didn't work. And then they called Mike--who bought one thing on his way to them that did not end up working and then took them to buy another set of things that did work (saving the day as usual).

Of course, this all took hours of time. 

Luckily Daisy went to work saving the day herself (as far as my birthday was concerned) back at home by whipping up the curry Abe was intending to make for a lovely birthday dinner for me (Mette assisted by peeling five potatoes she tells me ... as she looks over my shoulder while I type this). Daisy also made lemon and chocolate pie with Mette for me and watched all the kids earlier when Mike took me to look for some new bedding and to get lunch.

And all ended well. Abe got his 39th month of climbing. I got curry and pie. And Mike bought me a new camera lens (!!!) that he gave me that night (once everyone was safely back home). I haven't had a new lens for years and years. And only one of my two lenses was working reliably. I'd looked at this particular lens off and on over the years but couldn't quite bring myself to put out that much money, so I was incredibly excited when Mike surprised me with it!

The kids all treated me perfectly all day. And Abe and Jesse gave me an early present of cleaning a disaster area of crafts and present bags and games in our garage. (Since the rental is a bit small for so many of us, the garage serves as a storage space for all kinds of things.) I'd been meaning to get to that for months, so it was a great gift. 

Oh and my friend Jessica sent me this little stained-glass hummingbird. Isn't it dear?

On to the other birthdays.

Jesse turned 16. So old! (We finished up his driving hours just a week or two after his birthday and just need to find time to get him to the DMV before he can officially drive places all on his own.) 

Jesse is a perfectly pleasant kid to have about. True he covers every computer area we ever have with 3D printer stuff and ... I don't even know what else. But he always is asking how he can help me and has a great little low-key sense-of-humor. Happy 16th to him!

Oh, and here he is when we needed to nab a quick picture of him for the calendar his Grandma Harris makes each year. Handsome fellow.

I always feel like there is an enormous shift in how old my kids look that happens between 14 and 16. Here. Compare 16-year-old Jesse to Jesse on his 14th birthday. Still a kid at 14. Not so much at 16.

And Abe turned 24. (Suddenly 16 doesn't sound so old!) 24. That's pretty wild. Mike was 24 and I was just about to turn 24 on the day Abe was born. I really don't think we could have even slightly imagined up that tiny first baby becoming ... our same age. 

But he did! And here we are celebrating him. (Several days late due to his being stuck in Provo in the midst of impending finals and what not on his actual birthday.)

(Daisy also gave Jesse a late birthday present that night. :). She is an excellent gift giver. She gave Abe those Star Wars socks above and Jesse some sort of LOTR tiny, resin, sword-making thing.)

Outside with you Shasta! (Wimpiest "outdoor cat" you've ever met. Just paws and paws on the windows over and over. And all of his humans younger than me are pushovers and open right up.)

Anyway, happy December birthdays to all three of us. And to my dad whose birthday is the day before  mine (and which he generally just waited and celebrated with me). He would have been 94!