The Christmas Tea

Have you ever had an out of body experience?  I think I did two nights ago.  If it's when you can't get a bearing on where you are, what year it is, who these people are around you, then maybe I did.

Next to me on my left was my mom - white-haired, warm and plump, cheerful and generous; on my right was my friend Amy - let's see if she reads my blog and say that she's just like my mom except brunette....Ok, she's not plump, either. :)  Around the table were some of the nicest ladies I know: Kim, Shireeny, Kara, Marcy, my mom-in-law Carolyn.  We were all together for a Women's Christmas Tea at our church.

The out of body part was when I looked toward the front of the room and there were my three daughters, all grown up, two playing instruments and singing, and one the speaker for the evening.

How can they be there - shouldn't they be playing Barbies?  How can I be sitting here next to my mom, feeling like a 20-year-old and behaving like a 9-year-old, with my DAUGHTERS off doing their things in an adult fashion?  It was like a generation gap explosion in my head.  It truly seems like yesterday that I was matching up Garanimals tags and picking out size 5 Toddler, 3 Toddler and 12 Month outfits that, yes, all matched.

What struck home was the fact that they really didn't need me.  They were invited to play/speak at this function.  They planned what they would play/speak about on their own.  They packed up, drove there, ate dinner, picked out outfits - all things that I used to do with them, or for them, when they were younger.  I was off in another town getting their grandma to the Tea.

And then when it was over, they fit right in with our group of ladies.  No generation gap explosion in my head, or anywhere, just a bigger bunch of ladies standing around and gabbing like we do so well.

I'm a grateful lady tonight - for friends to share these times with, and who love my daughters and fit them right into their own lives, and grateful for these daughters, who love and honor me, their 9-year-old mom, and who also honor their Lord with their lives.