Christmas in April

The gifts of today were wrapped in a beautiful hue of icy blue, the color of the Colorado sky in the sunny winter afternoons.  The wonder of modern medicine to take away my horrific allergic reaction to the spiny pollen particles unseen to man, but a familiar sight to my sinus cavity!  Joy and rapture!  With a clear breath I could wake to join the exciting activities that today unpacked in my living room.

The air was full of tingling giddiness.  I thought it was just me.  So excited to be welcoming our oldest back to the nest for a six week visit before he treks off once more for the wild west for the summer.  I was watching the minutes clang away with syrupy laziness.  When will the day close and the darkness reveal the witching hour?  Then the boys bounded in from school, "What time does his flight come in?  Are we all going?"  Up to this point I just thought Sarah and I would be the only ones piercing the cab line at the baggage claim to fetch Adam.  Hum.  I guess I should ask who wants to go.  Sarah had already asked if she could skip soccer practice.  This isn't something she EVER asks to do.  Soccer is her life right now.  So, I knew she was going.  I just assumed the boys would do the normal shrug of I-got-better-things-to-do, like sleep on the couch while watching a cheesy movie I've already seen 10,000 times.  All were up for the trip.  Even my hubby was at the ready.  It was like Christmas morning at the top of the stairs.  "Please, mom, let us go down now!  Now?  What about now?"  Of course, I just silently soaked it all in.  Loving the electricity in the car as we all piled in headed to grandma's house to wait out the last hour.

Assuming some would stay behind with grandma and say their hellos as we breezed back through we headed back to the car after a  cup of coffee and catching up with grams.  Nope.  We're going with you.  Again, piled into the car wondering why the speed limit was set so low.  Wondering why the traffic was so apathetic to our journey.  His flight was early, so we weren't even there when he arrived.  Oh well.  He was like a beacon on the sidewalk as we pulled in.  Wow!  Was that my baby?  Had he looked that old four months ago?  We popped like popcorn kernels to get a peek at him as he bounded in the car.  Wanting to catch a glimpse of what pieces of the west he brought back for us to share.  Stories of Uncle Jeff, eating lunch at Dorothy's, the powder on Wolf Creek or just the scent of Colorado lingering on his clothes and out of every pore on his body. Everyone wanting a piece of his attention for themselves.  

I can't wait for the day when all of my kids get to venture from the nest and try out their wings and fly.  Soaring over the world picking their nesting site, settling in, making their life their own.  But not just the journey out to where they will find themselves, the adult version of their little selves, but the journey home.  The journey to visit and have the childlike excitement that they felt tonight.  To talk about random facts, spit out funny jokes they've learned, catch them up on their lives and what's up with the neighborhood.  The Christmases of the future where kids and grandkids will converge upon the smallest room in the house and sit on the counters and laugh and joke and play their music and be.  Be the puzzle with no end pieces that continues to grow and expand until it outgrows the table and must be moved to the floor.  Then each takes their own pieces and starts their puzzles with their new families and we continue to gravitate to each other when we need that familial feeding.  

Life happens.  It's beautiful and leaves me wondering how in the world I could ever love them more.  And then with each sunrise I find that my heart just expands that much more, ready for a new day and new memories and new adventures in this crazy life God gave me.  Life.  Be.  God.  Thanks.