Various birthdays have significant meaning, as they are transitions.

18 makes you an adult.  21 makes you a real adult.

25 marks your 1/4 century, the precursor to getting old.

30 marks the end of your wild ages.  And 40, well at that point you are entering your dotage in some peoples minds such that many lie and claim to be 39 for a few years running.

And don’t start with 50.

So today was my birthday and it was….none of the above.

48 actually.  And yet, even though it was not one of those traditionally intense days, I still found it a remarkable one.

This year has been a strange and remarkable year, what with my children scattering to the winds and my divorce looming.  This birthday I had figured to be a low key, uneventful and forgotten one.

It was anything but, really.

I headed to my dad’s house on the Peninsula and expected a nice dinner and such, but instead it was a fairly wild day.

First we got to see one of the Seattle Ferries ram the dock, something they typically try to avoid.

This Christmas was my daughter’s first “real” Christmas.  No she is not a baby, she is 17 and a senior in High School.

The reason I say it is her first one, is that this year she is working and decided to buy presents for all of our family herself, and in doing so, she went all out.  And it was a joy to behold.

First some history.

Throughout Kayla’s early years, times were somewhat hard.  I was military, recently divorced and remarried, and frankly we had little money for many years.

Kayla never lost her holiday spirit, and always took great delight in Christmas, even when there were only a few presents under the tree.

When she reached an age to want to give presents, we often didn’t have the resources to help her buy presents for the other kids, so she made her own.  Her present of choice for many years was to take scraps of cloth (she loved to sew and collected fabric) and batting and make mini pillows, some only a few inches long.  She would spend hours making them by hand, then wrapping them, so no one was forgotten.

I saw this at Hot Air.  I agree with their assessment, it is cheesy but irresistible.  

But aside from the warm and fuzzy factor, I believe this glimpses and reminders are important, regardless of politics and ideology, because no matter what you think of the war, the reminder that our soldiers are human and that they not only risk their lives, they sacrifice their time with their families to serve a cause they believe.

Thus it has always been, and always will be.  This transcends this war.  This is a fact of Military life, and is something these soldiers share with Military men and women of all ages, eras and conflicts.

So, here is extreme cuteness, with the best saved for last.

And another one…

…and another…

…even another…

…and the granddaddy of them all, from last year.

Well even the students know how to take a concept and twist it completely out of proportion.

The students in the LA area again protested the proposed immigration laws, and decided that immigration wasn’t necessarily the issue, nor was illegal immigration.

Their issue is apparently conquest.  From Michelle Malkin:

Go to her link for more pictures.

I have been light on my writing, due to some serious events here.

The first was fairly mundane, I started my new job last Monday, and I have frankly been too preoccupied with learning the processes to spend a lot of time writing.

But much more serious, was hearing my uncle had died of emphysema the 15th, 2 days before I started that job.

As a matter of background, my father’s family is very large. He is second eldest of 13 children. The children arrived from around 1932 to 1953, and all 13 lived and grew into adulthood, despite 3 of them serving in the Marine Corps in Korea (my dad included); despite a much high mortality rate from childhood diseases; and despite having 11 rowdy boys, a feat that I consider to be somewhat blessed all on it’s own.

My grandmother is, or should be, a certified saint, having raised these 11 boys and 2 girls. (don’t pity the heavily outnumbered girls, they are today two of the most amazing and strong women I know) Grandmother was named Mother of the Year in San Jose California in the mid 50s, a title she earned many times over.. She was also on her own from the mid 60s or so when my grandfather died. I hardly knew him really, but she remains a firm memory.