Advent and birthdays

Amelia's birthday is today! Happy Birthday to you! She was having a massage (that should be interesting) and a pedicure (she can't even see her toe nails!) -- a purely pampered day because, she says, there is no telling when she will have the opportunity again. We are still hoping the baby will arrive around the 11th, as the doctor said it was possible, but that is almost two weeks before her due date...so who knows. We are hoping, anyway. She and Chris will be having dinner at The Village tonight. Her gift will have to wait until tomorrow.

Fee's birthday is the 22nd. He is a child of the Winter Solstice, and last year on his birthday I decided that in the future, I would celebrate his birthday each day from the first day in December until December 22...kind of a very personal advent. Today, his gift is some ivy plucked from the garden and a note that says that ivy symbolizes the season and stands for fidelity, protection, honor, marriage, and good luck. Tonight we will be grateful for the beginning of the Christmas season, the Winter Solstice, the first day in the count-down to Fee's birthday, the birth of Amelia ___ years ago today, Chris's birthday in a few short days, and the prospective birth of our third grandchild. We will remember his mother who was also born on December 22; he is actually a second generation Winter Solstice child. My mother, too, will hold a special place in my prayers because she died December 16th in 2005. Both mothers will be a cherished part of this tradition.

Last year I jotted down some simple gifts that had to do with the Winter Solstice, so Fee will receive a little something each day. It will, I hope, become a ritual...and I wish I'd thought of it years ago.

I won't post this until later tonight after the fact. :)
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We had a lovely first of December evening browsing Sam's (I have the raspberries for a cobbler now), then out to eat. He seemed quite pleased with the ivy and the note. And so until tomorrow evening's gift...