26 and 5 and very special indeed!

Well, amazingly, here we are at December 13th again!  This is a big day in our house.  Lots of great things happen to us on this day. 

26 years ago, Pat and I stood before a wonderful priest at St. Timothy's Episcopal Church in Herndon, Virginia and said our vows before God, our family and our friends.  When I look in the mirror and see the evidence of time marching inexorably across my face (and my hair!!. . .and pretty much the rest of me, too) I can see that 26 years have passed.  But, without that mirror, my heart is still full of love and excitement  for and about our plans for the future.  I love my husband with my whole heart and soul and love the life we have created together.

We have had so many wonderful realized dreams:  we live in a beautiful town in a beautiful house (not that that is super important, but it does make life easier); we have great jobs that have been steady and secure;  we have good friends and loving and understanding families; We don't NEED anything.  And we have a beautiful, loving, caring, and smart son who delights us each and every day.  We are soooo blessed!!!

And speaking of that wonderful son, 5 years ago today, we got our petition to the courts to finalize our paperwork and to indicate what we wanted to change our sons name to.  This was the final piece to submit on our journey to making Aidan our son and completing our Forever Family.  To celebrate, we ordered dinner in that evening and painted our baby boys bedroom Russian Blue.  It was an Anniversary, our 21st!, I will never forget.

And to ceebrate our Anniversary this year, we have some fun plans!  Aidan will come home on the school bus and he and Pat will do what little bit of homework he has. . .he did some of it last night at my insistence!  He will then get dressed in his new Christmas outfit.  When I get home, we will all head down to Dulles Town Center to see Santa!!!  And then we will do a little Christmas shopping for Aidan's teachers and then head out to dinner.  But, shhhhhh!!!!  Aidan doesn't know about the Santa and shopping part!  : )  He thinks we are going to make him get dressed up to "just go have dinner with Mama and Daddy." 

I love that our Anniversary is at Christmas time.  I love that the whole world in in preparation to celebrate the Coming of Jesus.  Our Anniversary gets lost in all the excitement some years, but Pat and I never forget how joyous and special it is that we are together in this life: For better or for worse, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.  Amen.

I should end there, but I have to share this incredibly funny video of our son.  Aidan figured out how to do this thing that kind of looks like a clown riding a very small bicycle. Only, there is no bicycle.  I think Aidan is really showing his Russian roots here.  You be the judge:

Can't you just see him doing that Russian dance where the legs get kicked out in front of him?  So funny!!