With my own birthday over with and Thanksgiving behind us as well, it is still only the beginning of the busiest part of the year for us. We have several more birthday's crammed into the end of the year, along with the rest of the holiday celebrations. However the birthday that we have been having the most fun planning this far is that of my adopted stepsons.

This is a big year for him. Not only has it been a year of tremendous progress for him both at school as well as at home, but age wise it is traditionally a birthday that you would make a big to do out of. That is right he will be old enough to drive in days, and we are in full swing doing our best to plan out the most memorable birthday he has yet to experience.

Now he has not yet been able to get his learner's permit for driving, as his responsibility level, while dramatically improved, is still not to the point where we would be comfortable enough with putting him behind the wheel of a car. Sure, I would love to be the cool parent and put him behind the wheel of a shiny new vehicle for his big day, but I do not wish to see him wrap it around a tree, so he is just going to have to wait a little bit longer before he gets a gift like that!

However, since he will not be getting the traditional gift for a young man of his age on this birthday, we want to make sure that that he still has a great day, a memorable experience, and most importantly feels loved and accepted on his special day. He has had to endure many hardships in his young life, and has shown how strong and resilient he is by rising above all of them, to become the wonderful young man that he has turned into. He still has a ways to go, but then again he is still young and all children at that age still have a ways to go, we are all, after-all a work in progress.

I don't want to give away any of the details of his special day, not yet anyway, just in case he happens to stroll by here in the hopes that I have let a few hints slip out on what exactly the super awesome fun that will unfold before his very eyes will be. My husband even worked from home today so that the two of us could sit home and brainstorm together. The one thing that we seem to agree on is that we both want to make sure that my adopted stepson feels like royalty on his big day. He has had to wade through so much garbage in his life, that it is equally important to both of us as his parents, that he have a day that we can show him just how special we think he truly is!

With him having such an accepting and open attitude towards the holidays this year it is going to be a lot of fun planning all of the festivities. I haven't been able to get into it for the past few years with all of the stress that is usually baring down on me by now, but with the pleasantly peaceful house that I have this year, the wheels are just a turnin' for some great holiday fun!