Another Birthday Boy-Jack!

Jack Thomas is 11 years old today!

Jack Thomas, aka...

Slam
Sha-sha
Skittles
Baby Jack
Sweet Baby Jack
BJ
JT
Jackie B

and I should now probably add: King of Alias's!

But of course, my favorite name for him is Jack Thomas. When I was pregnant with Jack, Paul and I let John, who was 5 at the time, choose Jack's name. His first choice was Michael, but, considering we already had three sons whose names began with the letter "J", we didn't want the new baby to feel left out, so we asked John to think of something else. His next choice was Jackson, which we thought was a very nice name, but we knew we would never call him that, so we whittled it down to Jack and everyone was happy! His middle name was a nod to "Thomas the Tank Engine" who was quite popular in our house at that time.

Why all this focus on the birthday boy's name? Because my favorite story about Jack has to do with his lovely name. In our family, we celebrate the Saints Feast Days of our children's namesakes. We usually do something very simple like have a favorite dessert after supper. Since we don't know if there is a St. Jack (fill me in please if you know of any) we choose to celebrate the feast day of St. Thomas which falls on July 3rd, as Jack's namesake Saint.

My children and I are in the habit of attending daily Mass during the school year. Not wanting to be pushy about the faith, I allow the kids to slack off and sleep in during the summer months and I attend Mass alone. But last year, on July 3rd, as I was backing the van out of the garage, I heard a little voice call out "Wait Mom! Don't leave without me! It's my feast day, I'm coming to Mass with you!" Well let me just say that hearing that sweet little voice speak those sweet little words made St. Thomas' feast day a true feast for me as well as for Jack!

Happy Birthday Sweet Baby Jack! May the dear Lord bless you!