Bridget turns 14

Ever year it strikes me appropriate that December 22 is when days get longer, when the sun shines more than the day before. After the season of darkening and the winter solstice marking the shortest day of the year, we shift toward light and in our family we celebrate Bridget, who is bright and brings sunshine to my world. I am so glad she was born.

At 14

Bridget is a close sitter- when she joins me on the couch she sits so close she pulls on my skin just a bit and it releases to share the space.

Bridget is angling to be the tallest Kehrman girl, she has grown a few inches but she has a few more to go.

She got her phone a year ago and she plays a lot of Animal Crossing, Among Us and a Home design game. She is very good at being the Imposter in Among Us, making secret kills and avoiding detection.

Her phone has provided a social lifeline during this pandemic. Bridget isn't on social media, but she uses her phone to talk to friends. Her friend group has a video call lunch every school day through the school issued laptops, and she regularly talks with her cousins and plays games.

Bridget commented the other day, that she isn't good at getting social queues and she is glad her friends are used to her. Between the difficulty of understanding nuance via text and dyslexia there can be confusing moments on text, so I am glad she has the option of communicating with facial and vocal info.

The pandemic has given the time for Bridget to practice embroidery, and painting, and drawing. Most days Bridget has an active art piece on the floor with the tools of the trade scattered around her.

Bridget thrives on a solid start of a day and likes to have time to prepare. 

Bridget rearranges her room occasionally and redecorates. This year she asked for vines for her birthday and now has a lovely cottagey vibe in her bedroom.

Bridge is a vegetarian, but somedays her main food group is starch. This has resulted in the whole family eating more vegetarian meals. She likes the end crusts of a good loaf of bread.

Bridget is trusting and generous but her tendency to hang back and verify has allowed her to be a good judge of things. Cynicism has crept in a bit, but her instinct to think the best in people is still dominant. 

She is a solid member of Hufflepuff house.

We tease her that she is perpetually 8 years old in our minds, but Bridget has crossed into being one of the big sisters, one of the big cousins and is included in conversations and jokes. This transition means that we have also been able to watch shows with her that before I felt she was too young for. We watched "Stranger Things" together this summer and now she, Megan and I are watching "Downton Abbey". 

It is such a blessing to have Bridget in my life: to see her grow and learn and mature. She is beautiful and loving and kind. 

We celebrated Bridget's birthday with curbside pick up dinner. She chose Olive Garden, because she loves the breadsticks and we all enjoyed it. This was a welcome redo from last year, where we tired Olive Garden, but Papa was working, Emma's car wasn't running right, Rachael was struggling, and Johanna whined all through her birthday dinner. We salvaged that night last year but this year no salvage operation was needed. Bridget opened her gifts, mostly clothes since she has grown so much. I took her shopping for much wanted jeans that fit, so she knew some of what she was opening. Dinner was great and easy and we again went out to Baskin Robbin's for ice cream. We returned home with our ice cream and the girls played a game of Exploding Kittens. It was a really fun day.