Day 65 - All I did was blink my eye...

This is my youngest. Well, it's her about 21 years ago. Yep, I have to say it out loud - my baby turns 25 this week.

WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN? I ask myself. All I did was blink my eyes and voila, my two kids are grown and I'm a grandmother.

So now do you understand why I feel such a need to celebrate my BIG birthday by walking the Camino de Santiago? It feels as if I have to halt things for a little while. I need to hit the brakes, be it for only a few weeks! I don't know if you can identify, but it just feels to me as if my life is flying past at a speed that seems supersonic!

I looked at this young woman last night who is now a mother herself and I recalled images of her that are etched in my mind. I could see her playing on the beach without a care in the world, I remembered the look on her face when I had to leave her at 'big school' for the first time, I recalled how she cried when she tried to cut her fringe herself and when it was all scew, she tried cutting it shorter and shorter, until she was left with no option but to wear a cap for a few weeks. I recalled how proud I was when she got her drivers licence and I also remembered the call of despair I got one afternoon when she'd missed her turn off - 'Mom, I'm lost - help!'

I have a lifetime of memories to recall, enjoy, reflect upon and treasure. I can only hope that I have passed on a positive legacy to my child. The negative things in life are inevitable and unfortunately we can't always shield our children from everything. It is what it is. As long as the positive outweighs the negative, I say there's hope for a happy existence!

So last night my family came over for dinner to celebrate her 25th birthday. How special it felt to have three generations of women in our family celebrate together. The men are all somewhat camera shy but the girls were more obliging - so here goes!

My sister, my mom, moi and the birthday girl.

 I still find it quite daunting to prepare food for guests but it always seems to work out and we had a feast - in fact I told them I'm not cooking on Christmas eve as this was the 'big one'. Famous last words - I know...

This was my first Lemon Meringue pie ever - whoever wrote this recipe knows their story, it was a hit!

Not sure how I'm going to survive the pilgrim's menu on the camino but as long as there's tapas available, I guess I'm going to be OK!

Here's to the first day of the rest of your life my child!