A Quarter of a Century

Can you believe João’s daughter turned 25 yesterday? Neither can she! Wow. Just yesterday she was a cute little girl. Now she is a beautiful young woman. We had a small family celebration yesterday. She went out with her college friends on Thursday, and her work buddies at lunch on Friday and next week will get together with her mother’s family. Talk about stretching out a celebration! And that’s just as it should be. Birthdays are great commemorations of who we are and our purpose. Plus it’s fun to get presents and eat cake.

I am facing terrible temptation here…. While we waited for the meal to get ready, we commented how the living room was dark. We have two burned out bulbs. I joked that now that Bernardo was our son-in-law, he could be pressed into service to change the bulbs since he’s pretty tall. He is so good-natured, that of course he offered (no pressure here…) to do so. Out comes the ladder. Now remember both he and Elly are engineers. One can only remember the old joke: How many engineers does it take to change a light bulb? Three. One to hold the ladder, one to hold the light bulb, and the third to interpret the Japanese text.

Well the temptation is that I snapped a shot of them changing the light bulb and Elly immediately commented… not for the BLOG! Everyone in America will see us changing a light bulb. I promptly said, of course not. But then I thought better. It’s such a cute photo, because the light fixture was actually very complex and you needed four hands, so she gave him her two hands. And João kibitzed, while I photographed. Now come on, don’t you want to see it? I’ll size it really little so as not to make it stand out. Now isn't that worth it?

There is something so natural, so sweet about it. Maybe because as they plan their wedding and subsequent marriage, it’s nice to see them so comfortable together, working to do a “job” together. I wish for them, in their marriage, the chance to work companionably together in many, many projects. Sorry, Elly, just couldn’t resist. Happy, Happy Birthday.