today is my little sister's seventeenth birthday.

when we trimmed the tree the other night, it seemed like all the oldest ornaments were broken. a reindeer missing its nose, a drummerboy less the drum. the beautiful red glass bells broke last year, and all our hand-made ceramic angels were in with the jack-in-the-box snowmen and other cheap plastic ornaments that go on the bottom of the tree where it won't matter if the cats knock them down.


we went to my brother's basketball game last week, and he'd grown so much from the image i have of him in my mind that i had to use the number on his jersey to pick him out of the group of flailing, flying teenaged boys. he played a good game, and i cheered so hard my throat went sore, and afterwards he stayed with his friends to watch the varsity game and didn't go for coffee with me like we'd planned.


today is my little sister's seventeenth birthday. i quite simply can't believe it. but here it is - she's grown up, she's driving my car, she's had a boyfriend for two years, she's gorgeous and she's fucking smart. she's a lot more teenager than i ever was, but i think that's her prerogative. she's grown up well, and i'm proud of her. it turns out that my family is all growing up, mostly together, and it's a strange thing to realize. it's a strange thing to be home again, to be in the middle of this house and all its energy and noise. but ok, so far. and i think ok.


[ps - kevin, you can still not hit on her.]