A Holly Jolly Christmas

    

My personal celebration of the holidays never gets old, Especially when shared with kids! I have enjoyed babysitting, dog sitting and the occasional odd jobs this past fall, whenever I get to watch my buddy Joshua we have a great time! We toss paper airplanes, or climb trees, we look through the bug book and run through the sprinklers especially after a day at the ZOO. 
These last 4 years with him in my life has been so delightful, so energizing that I was sad in hearing he was moving away this week. So we made a big fun last event in hanging out at the holiday "Garden a Glow" along with his Mom and baby brother. The four of us had such a delightful time in the botanical gardens decorate in Christmas lights!
Joshua and I ran to the top of the hill while his mom Eranda sat with her baby boy Kite, resting and waiting for us to return. Eranda said my blinking lights on my hat allowed her to know where we were up there in the whole time. Joshua and I just stood a moment at the top of the gardens looking out across at Boise, Idaho. In the winter's darkness I said "Look at those city lights! I am so glad it's not so cold right now up here." Joshua jumped around from bench to bench saying "I won't be living here anymore.....and so we won't get to go to the zoo anymore." I felt sad as I thought about how much fun I've always had hanging out with this kid! 
I smiled back thoughtfully and half hugged him knowing it is always so hard when everything changes. When we saw a long line of kids waiting to ring the bell in the glowing gardens I asked Josh if we should go get in line he smirked "It's not worth standing in line forever....it's just a bell, I rang it last year anyway." I laughed at his response knowing so many times when we went to festivals or to parades if there was a crowd he would always say "This isn't fun any more lets walk over there where there is less people." I would agree proudly and we would just chat away in our own world. 
The Garden a Glow evening was truly fun and magical, we walked through the whole place and saw every display while goofing around together. As a going away gift I gave Joshua our well used bug book and his favorite rubber snake that we had played many pranks on each other with over the years! The magic of being a kid is such a huge world of wonders that I will always be so grateful for these years of hanging out with my buddy Joshua! I will be a bit sad too, I shall miss him so much for swinging and walking the railroad tracks or jumping over the irrigation ditch was made even better with him by my side, with him saying things like "This is CRAZY! We could get hit by a train!" 
OR in that moment when I swung him over the water only to fall completely in myself! We both were laughing so long over that moment in our many adventures!

It was a holly jolly night running around with Joshua under the Christmas lights even though I knew I would be sad when he left. Making it the best night ever in jokes and stories and laughter! Being friends is something that came so natural for us that I know we will always stay in touch, It's just hard to adapt to not having him around to show me new things like the lego movie or how to order from the new soda machines in McDonald's and Burger King. So instead I will keep the memories of dancing to all his Michael Jackson songs or putting old puzzles together as the best part of our holly jolly good times!