Fate of the Child with the Christmas Birthday

Yes, this is a post about Seth's birthday party. The party wasn't just late, but the post about it is coming nearly a month after the party actually took place as well. Not a problem for Seth, though. He always gets a party at Christmas with all of our extended family, something none of other children get to enjoy most years. But a friend party... that has to happen later, well after the Christmas holiday, and this year also after Chinese New Year. Seth planned a football party for himself last month. He sent an email to a crowd of his closest buddies for a Saturday afternoon game of full-on tackle football on the school field. It was a cold day, but it didn't seem to slow this group of 14 year old guys down a bit. They hit hard!
I think the ref was a little cold, but he sure had fun watching. I know he was silently praying that none of these unprotected boys would hurt each other too seriously!
Here's the crew, having escaped their contest unscathed. Seth's in the back middle, with a gray knit cap on.
My part for the party was to provide food... no problem. After a hearty dinner, Gwen served the cupcakes. :-)
Seth, ever the actor, played his role well.
Better late than not at all... Happy 14th, Sether! We love you, man.

For several weeks now...

... Seth has been twelve! Finally I am posting a few pics from our family celebration of his birthday, which we had the night before we left for the US for Christmas.

Birthday cookies!

Trying out the new rip stick in the dining room.

We love you, man!

Scott and Madelyn with our Christmas boy! I've always felt it was so special to have given birth at Christmas. What a gift Seth was to us that Christmas of 1996... we were about to move across the country, just a week after his birth. His coming made a move right after Christmas bearable... he was our gift, and the circumstances of the rest of our life paled in comparison to having him! He was born on the 23rd, and he and I came home from the hospital just 24 hours later, on Christmas Eve. I remember cuddling him on the couch on Christmas Eve afternoon, looking through Christmas cards as I rested there, and just feeling incredibly blessed to have this tiny boy beside me.

Annual Event

Every year around Seth's birthday I have taken his picture in this stocking. This is the stocking that the hospital put my Christmas baby in after his first bath. Just his little face was peeking out of it when they wheeled him into my room. The next year he was sitting in the stocking and it came up around his chest, with his arms and head out, but with plenty bunched up around him. The second and third years he stood in the stocking, with it easily reaching somewear around his middle. Since then, the stocking seems to be rapidly shrinking.

This was the eleventh year after that first time in the stocking. He is still able to get two feet in it. I'm not sure how much longer that will last. But Seth and I have agreed that we'll keep taking his picture in the stocking every year.

Seth's 11th Birthday

One of the benefits for Seth of a Christmas birthday is that he gets to have a party with our extended family, not something the rest of us get to do often. This year we had everyone over at my parents' for a taco buffet dinner. Because of a craving for wedding cake he had a couple of months ago he decided on a white cake with white frosting for his birthday. Watch out, Seth, or Maggi and Frank might eat that cake up! Frank was a birthday gift full of personality right out of the box.
Seth was so cool opening gifts in front of a roomful of people. He took his time with each gift, carefully removing each thing from the box and fully enjoying it before moving to the next gift. We remembered a birthday many years ago, I think when he was turning three, that each gift he opened he would say, "It's just what I always wanted!"

Happy Birthday, Christmas boy... you will always be my favorite Christmas gift!