Happy 47th Birthday, Jacob!
It’s Good Friday, so celebrating a birthday
definitely felt strange today. We didn’t
exactly throw a huge party, though, and while it is important to remember
Christ’s sacrifice for us; I like to think of Good Friday in the same way we
think about Memorial Day around here – with remembrance and then celebrating
the life that we’ve been given through Jesus.
If that seems strange or even wrong to you, try remembering that there
is no pain, suffering, or sorrow in heaven; and Jesus is there with his Father
– surrounded by joy and love.
My morning started out with Tai Chi for
six, and it was probably a combination of the occasion and being indoors that
made that little exercise break a bit on the quiet and somber side. I needed to hurry after that and get ready
for church while Michael went home so that I could meet up with him there for
his father’s birthday breakfast. Jacob
had the day off from any cooking; so Miranda and Rebecca cooked while Michael
and I did the clean-up. That blast of
fun was another first as Michael’s girlfriend, so it may have even been more
special for me than it was for Jacob; since he wasn’t making a big deal out of
his special day.
By the way, he doesn’t care if everyone
knows how old he is; but then that’s probably easy when you’re easily the most
handsome forty-something man around here – and I’d argue that’d be the case
nearly anywhere. Sorry, Dad, but the
good news is that by the time you’re a forty-something man; Jacob will have
moved on to be the best-looking fifty-something guy around, so you won’t be
competing with him.
We didn’t have all that long to eat, do
gifts, and clean up before we needed to head over to the church; so that scene
was both entertaining and rushed. Though
it was very cool out still, we walked to church; and were early enough that we
spent some time quietly welcoming some of our family members and friends while
making our way into the sanctuary for the service. The Good Friday message doesn’t exactly get
‘spiced up’ or changed like services are on pretty much any other Sunday; so
there isn’t any point in writing much about the message that anyone reading
this in the future would know as well as I do.
The sermon and music were appropriately solemn to the occasion; and we
left the sanctuary in near-silence that was nearly the opposite of all other
church gatherings. I walked home with
Michael and our combined families; but we split up to go to our own homes to get
changed and have lunch.
The temperature was warming up by then, so
after having a quick sandwich and some veggies on the side; I grabbed my bike
and went to meet up with Michael, Rowen, and Tim to hang out with them for a
few hours. We went for a ride around
town first before going on to the park; and then we spent some time attempting
to ride some of the less-messy bike trails.
They are starting to dry out; but it’s still more work than fun to ride
anywhere except on the main, groomed path.
Some guys have started to clear the branches and winter debris off of
the trails, though, and will be working on fixing trails and jumps as usual; so
I’m sure we’ll be out there and riding more often in the coming weeks.
That might even draw Tim’s attention away
from football for a while now and then!
Then again, we didn’t exactly escape the
day football-free. Michael and Tim
played with some of the other guys for a while after our trail ride; and had
Ethan join them for his football cameo when he came over to the park with Mom,
Dad, Aunt Leanne, Uncle Adam, Ehlana, and Zack.
We had some park play time too, and then it was time for all of us to
move on to our respective dinner plans.
For Mom, Dad, the twins, and me; that was going over to Michael’s house
for Jacob’s birthday dinner. The Bassett
clan was there too; so I was put to work keeping up with all of the younger
kids. Michael, Rebecca, Erica Bassett,
and Caleb Palmer helped out with that some of the time too; and we had fun
while the adults – except for Jacob – took care of the work involved in getting
a pot-luck dinner on the tables.
Jacob had more gifts to open during dinner;
he was mildly roasted by his friends and family; and Miranda had fun with
forty-seven candles distributed liberally around two cakes that made it all but
impossible for him to blow out all of the candles. He recruited his younger nieces, nephew, and
Ethan and Ehlana to help him with that, though; and they eventually managed to
put out the little fires without setting off any smoke detectors. I only felt a little guilty about getting out
of the clean-up; but another round of fun at the park – even with a bunch of
young kids – was a lot of fun. Erica and
Caleb are two and three years older than Michael and me, so we don’t spend much
time with them outside of Bassett family events, but I really like both of them
a lot; and we get along really well.
I should have said that I don’t spend much
time with them, because Caleb is on the football team, and does the weight
training with Michael and the other guys; so Michael does spend time with him
every school day morning before classes.
Erica is like most teens of store owners in town, and she works a lot at
the grocery store; but she’s also busy playing school sports with Carolyn
Landry and she’s one of our cheerleaders too so she’s busy all of the time
anyway – even if the gap between Grades Eight and Ten weren’t so huge anyway. They’re both great with kids, and Erica
really has a particularly close relationship with Jessica and Sophia. Next to Naomi and Aiden, Sophia is definitely
Ethan and Ehlana’s best friend; and the three of them had a blast running
around together – and playing with the rest of us. Some of the parents joined us for the tail
end of our playground time once the work at Michael’s house was finished; and
then it was time to split up again and head for our own homes for the night.
That didn’t mean to our own homes, because
a last-minute suggestion turned into a minor sleepover event at our house. I suggested having Michael and Rebecca stay
with us to give Jacob and Miranda a kid-free night; Ehlana invited Sophia
shortly after that; and Jessica and Ryan were added in when they didn’t want to
be left out. That was a bonus for their
parents too; but let’s not discuss what might be going on at two houses just
down the street from us right about now.
Packing overnight bags didn’t take very
long with a little help for Jessica, Ryan, and Sophia; and then it was time for
some movie action in the lounge once we’d set up our guests in bedrooms on the
second or third floor. Ryan wasn’t
exactly thrilled that the younger girls got to pick the movie, but Ethan
quietly solved that problem by giving Ryan his iPad to play games on – and they
sat in the window alcove so that they could do that with minimal intrusion on
the movie watchers. As with probably a
lot of young kids, Sophia’s favorite movie right now is ‘Frozen’; so we watched
that again. I love the music and story;
so it really doesn’t matter to me that I have it memorized and can replay it
anytime I want – it’s still fun to watch movie repeats with my family and
friends.
Bonus cuddle time with Michael is nice too!
;^)
Mom and Dad came for the three toddlers and
Ryan when the movie was over; but Jessica was allowed to stay up with us for a
while. We did a bit of music time with
my keyboard and guitar; listened to some music videos; and mostly had a little
girl chat time that Michael pretended not to listen in on if it got too weird
for him. Watching a second movie was considered,
but two of us didn’t want to stay up too late with a busy weekend ahead of us;
and Rebecca and Jessica had some fun teasing Michael and me about needing some
alone time before he had to go to his room for the night.
They gave us that time anyway, and we spent
nearly an hour together in the lounge, but with a house full of cousins and
siblings; we kept our little make-out section on the low end of the hot
scale. That was still more alone time
than we’d expected to have, though; so we were both very happy when we shared
our goodnight hugs and kisses and Michael headed downstairs to the bedroom
below the lounge. Yes, he could have
used the bedroom across the hall instead; but we’re probably better off keeping
it this way for at least a while longer.
I got ready for bed right away after that,
and climbed into bed with Mandy and my computer. For some reason, it’s taken me a while to get
tired out enough to sleep, but I had some family business work that I could do;
so there was an easy outlet for the unused energy. It is time for me to call it a night, since
we’ll be up early for Tai Chi by the river – and then have a gang to feed and
take care of; so I guess that’s all I have for now. Until next time…
…Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the
Light!
