Having my first birthday with my new little family was so tenderly special I could barely contain myself in each moment. Holden- aside from his obstinance at wishing me a happy birthday despite my best cajoling- was so joyful and excited it was as if he knew something great was going on. We all went caroling downtown and we got to see Alicia, Andrew, Stacey, Tiffs to name a few, and Holden took in the downtown scene with awe and calm. Standing at the beautiful Capitol steps singing amidst 1000 of Austin's finest (and whitest lol), there was such a nice feeling of togetherness and public peace that it a rare find these days. Afterwards Alicia watched H-Bomb for my birthday gift and Chris and I went to Melting Pot and had yumz. Whenever we go there we get treated like royalty, apparently there is some notation in our file that says we are best friends with the owners due to my working with her at one point, so we always get special treatment and free stuff. We had a private little booth in the back, and the waiter looked so much like my dear friend Ethan and was so fun (We talked for 20 mins about old video game systems) that it really couldn't have gone much better. We got home and gave Alicia our dessert because we could not finish it, and I opened my presents before bed.
All my presents were thoughtful, but Chris's as always took the cake. He always manages to give me the perfect gift for the perfect time in my life. This time he got me a record player that you can connect to badass speakers and the computer to convert old records to mp3s and CDs. I had mentioned a long time ago how fun it would be to have a record player (The sound is sooo much better than cd/mp3 quality and the artwork is so nice) and go to the used record stores with Holden and pick out albums to try out. He remembered this and centered all my gifts around a music theme- also picking out three records spanning important times of my life (The Doors, The National and Radiohead Kid A) and a painting he got from a local gallery from an Austin artist who does paintings of cult figures. He got me most gorgeous painting of Kurt Cobain on stage with angel wings. Portions of it glow when the lights are out. It is now in our living room next to our Christmas tree. He told me that even though 30 is young, if I ever felt worried about getting too aged I will always have my music to keep me young. Today we went to Half-Price books and bought used records of Yeats reading Yeats, Hits of the 1720s hahaha, and Old Peter Green Fleetwood Mac. I also got a new Anne Tyler book (top 5 fav writer) and Huckleberry Finn. I think in high school I was assigned to read HF but skimmed through it annoyed by the dialect. Chris and I recently watched a wonderful movie (suggested by my dad) called "Away We Go" and the father-to-be in the movie said he wanted his child to live in a place with land and open space and feel overwhelmed with nature infused with wildness like Huck Finn (or something along those lines). I 100% agree with this desire so figured I would check out the book to see if I can unroot a newfound appreciation for it. When we got home we hooked up the record player to the TV and even despite the standard-issue TV speakers it sounded 1000 times clearer than a CD. And there was the occasional pop that I love.
My new painting
Holden wanted a Santa beard
Proud dad and cherub boy
Eating his taters like a good Irishman
Listening to Daddy at the coffee house
Kelly and Alicia (Holden's love)
Cruising downtown in sling
Are they caroling for me Daddy?!
Watching street musicians
Our glorious tree
It snowed on 12/4, the gods were a day off but i'll forgive them
And video of snow...I was so excited I nearly cried that my little boy got to see snow fall in his backyard on his first holiday season on earth. And onto New Mexico we go!
I am so thankful to have the love and support that I do in my life. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world that I have the most wonderful man, happiest most beautiful baby on the planet, great family and friends, and the physical and mental strength to accomplish any goal I want- all at the young age of 30! Not many people are able to have the luxury of being so close to their little one that they actually notice the first time that a stroking of his back raises goosebumps, but I am indeed that lucky and each day I think of that and send a breathless thank you to the universe.
I am so excited to see what the next decade holds for our family, for our individual goals and pursuits, and hopefully for the world at large.
Love,
Kelly with a bowl fulla jelly
