2014 is over tonight. It’s hard to believe another year has ended. Time just keeps flying by and I keep looking around wondering where it went.
We celebrated Christmas several times over the last week and I was back in the photo business with my new camera. (Thanks family for the early Christmas gift!) Putting together yearly photo calendars for both grandmothers, and working on a photo book for 2014, caused some nostalgia as I looked through photos of the last year. Having the time to hang a bit with my kids added to it, especially when my 13 year old slept until after 8:00 Christmas morning. I was the only one awake early, with just George the cat for company. What happened to waking my parents with the phrase, “We can’t hold them back much longer”, as the kids hovered at the top of the stairs? It all changed this year. But that wasn’t all that changed.
Look at these two. They are so tiny.
And willing to wear matching jammies for their mom. 
They used to both fit in my lap.
Now the matching pajamas are just a memory.
And socks are not as exciting as they used to be.
But they are still silly and like to laugh with and at each other.
Christmas 2005, nine years ago. Bitty Baby had to be in the photo, Coach and I had more hair and less of it was gray, and JMumbo still fit on his dad’s lap,
Christmas 2014. The prodigal daughter has her learner’s permit (which she never uses), George the cat is a permanent fixture in the family, and they are all as tall as Coach and I. Soon JMumbo will shoot past us. M&M never will, but that means she can wear heels and not tower over her dates.
I tried to get JMumbo to sit with me in the big chair last night and watch a movie like we used to. I even made popcorn to bribe him with. He wandered into the kitchen, stole the big bowl of popcorn leaving me with a little one, and headed back upstairs to the gaming world he likes to spend time in. Thank goodness for George, he spent some time with me, filling the empty space. JMumbo was always the one willing to snuggle with his mommy and hang out. Now his legs and arms hang over the edges of whatever he is sitting on.
2015 will bring more changes in physical size, interests, and aptitudes. It will be a year where the prodigal daughter starts to narrow down college choices and JMumbo enters high school. Time will keep moving forward and I will try to keep up, remembering what Bilbo Baggins said, “It’s a dangerous business going out your door. You step onto the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.” I’ll try to keep my feet in 2015.
Camp Colombo 