Celebrating

Well, today marked the third birthday celebration in our family this year. For that matter, the third for the week. And it was for only one person's birth. One person, three family celebration... and two classroom "parties." That's a lot of junk food. And his birthday didn't even show up on the calendar!
That is how it is for our leap year day "baby," Scott. This is how it is for him every year that his birthday doesn't appear on the calendar. A number of people have said that it must be rough for him, only having a birthday every four years. He loves it. It would probably be tough on him if he had siblings, but since he doesn't we've always been able to make the anniversary of his birth special. Three out of every four birthdays we - mom, dad and birthday boy - do something focused upon him on both February 28th and March 1st (this year- dinner at a restaurant of his choosing one day, pizza and DVDs on the other), plus have an extended family get together on a different day. On the years that his birthday is part of the calendar, we celebrate on February 29th and take a vacation that year. That means next year, a leap year, we are going on vacation to celebrate. He'd love to go to the Holy Land, but I'm just not seeing that happen. I had always thought that the trip on his 12th birthday year would be Space Camp, but it might be Rome next year. That is much more do-able than the Holy Land financially, yet meets his desire for a grand pilgrimage. Plus we have a friend studying at the North American College, so we could visit him and, if he has time, maybe get him to show us around a bit - then the trip might avoid being thoroughly coated with the aroma of touristiness (my own word, but you get the idea).
I wonder if at twelve he'll be able to really appreciate a trip to Rome. Don't get me wrong - I know he'll be over the moon appreciative if we go to Rome. I'm just wondering if there might be a depth to such a trip that he might miss and never capture during a subsequent trip (if there might be one) because it wasn't grasped the first time. Yet, I really hesitate to squash healthy interest/enthusiasm related to God and, by extension/inclusion, the Church. There is all of this year and a large portion of 2008 to figure out our plans. Who knows what will be going on next year?! Peace. ~~~mary