Birthdays, solstice and christmas!!!

So, here we are.
Everyone is talking about being ready for Christmas yet here we are still trying to concentrate on Tom's birthday, which is tomorrow.
But we have had to do christmas preparations. There have been presents to make, package up, wrap and parcel up to post. A special consignment was delivered to my good friend Han yesterday, while Rob and the smalls went to the post office with the parcels for further afield.
Rob and Jonathan have their birthdays and then I get lulled into a false sense of security that Tom's is a week away. I started doing christmas things, we talked about the winter solstice and then suddenly I rememeber that it is his birthday tomorrow!!!! Eeek!!! Birthday cake is quickly baked, plans thrown together. A few presents wrapped and cards hastily made. Food shoppping was done this afternoon and suddenly we are here.
This strange day which I always feel should be Tom's birthday. He was born in such chaos around midnight that noone really knows which day is his birthday. The people present (there were quite a few!) seemed to all agree on just after midnight (12:03 to be precise for the record), but to me it always seems wrong that it is tomorrow and not today. He should have been born before midnight, long before, but I won't go into detail about that here. Then he would have 2 days between his birthday and christmas and it would be right....I was in labour all that day and that is when I think about his passage in to this world.
I brought Tom home from hospital on a beautiful frosty Christmas Eve, 15 years ago. This was my first experience of birth and motherhood, both of which started out as a disaster, but I have arrived at Tom's 15th birthday feeling proud that I have made it through many difficult and testing times with him firmly by my side. He has turned into a very mature, sensible young man with a great sense of humour. He is always there to help, can always be relied upon and has always been and continues to be, my right hand man.
He is paving the way for his brothers and I just hope that he continues on this path he has chosen. It cannot be easy being the eldest of four boys....(it certainly isn't easy being a mum of four boys!!!) but he is doing just fine!!
So here I sit unable to do anything constructive this evening as is true of many an eve of Tom's birthday thinking about the whole experience and wishing I had known then what I know now. But despite the delayed and consequently forced entry in to this world, the terrible experience of breast feeding and the upheaval that he experienced as a baby; we moved house more times than I care to remember, and he went to a child minder as a very small baby (don't ask!!!) and many other things along the way, he has turned out ok!!
I may have screwed up in the beginning, but I must have done something right along the way! So tomorrow we will celebrate Tom's 15th birthday.
And from today the days are getting longer and that has got to be something worth smiling about! It is funny how I wasn't as desperate for the Winter Solstice as I thought I was going to be, because we have been having this beautiful snow and frost for the last few days. The sun has been shining, so the normal dull and dreary grey of winter hasn't been hanging over us. Yes, I could cope with winter if it was cold and frosty all the time. It is the grey and wet I hate so much.
We have a decorated tree now. Paper chains and snowflakes up. A winter seasons table. Lights up in the dining room and kitchen bringing the magic to the most used rooms in our house and preents all wrapped. So preparations done, many of the handmade gifts I planned have been finished, and now it is time to just look ahead and enjoy the festive season.
Merry Christmas to you all xxx

The view from my dining room window...

This is Tom's car!!!!!!!!!
This is the reward that I spoke of in a previous post. Not from us....but from the very wonderful and generous guys on his 4x4 forum. The same guys that take him to the events and sometimes let him drive their cars!
It is a very cool (I have been converted!) Suzuki Vitara soft top, just itching to be modified for off road use. He has had many gifts from the guys in the form of parts. Some posted to the house so that it felt like christmas, and some that he has had to collect...the biggest thanks of all goes to Phil, who has engineered (no pun intended...honestly...well, maybe just a little!) the whole thing.
Tom has done some jobs on Phil's truck..welding and such like, but we never expected anything like this!!!! He has sourced it, brought it here and persuaded others to part with things that he will need to get it done. He has also been the taxi driver on many occaisions. He ha salso said some wonderful things about my son that has brought tears to my eyes. Thank you Phil.
Still, such a wonderful present for a boy his age to get. He has been out there almost non stop since doing things to it. The original bumpers have been removed and he has made a new one for the back from a scaffold pole, I believe. Cut, angled and welded...including brackets for fixing and a tow hitch.
I still look at him and can't believe he is only 14.
So my dear boy, good things come to those who deserve them. You have been a rock to me over the years and in return, I hope I have helped you to grow your own wings, in a way that school would have never allowed. I am so proud of you.