Forever Friends

Sometimes I think I am the luckiest girl alive to have the friends and family that I do. Each one of my girlfriends, either from childhood or college or beyond, bring something special and unique to my life, and I am thankful for and appreciative of different things about each one of them. For the last several years, my Charles City girlfriends and I have made it a priority to get together around Christmas for some seriously fun girl time. Take last year for example - I'm not sure Lion's Field sledding hill had seen the likes of us since we were 13. The hill was much steeper than I remember and I think I only went down twice, but seeing Kara in a one-piece snow suit made the hour outside totally worth it.

And this year was no different. Well, it was different because Kara wasn't able to come. And with good reason - she had her first baby on Friday after a very quick 4 hour labor. We are so proud of her and thought of her and baby Gabriel Keith the entire evening. But aside from babies being born and missing one of us, it was still some seriously fun girl time. We visit each one of our homes in progressive dinner type fashion and I love catching up and visiting with the parents almost as much as I do seeing the girls.

Bruce, the dog, was making us all laugh so hard (or was it Amanda making us all laugh so hard?) that my abs hurt. I love laughing like that.All of the food was delicious! We were treated to coconut shrimp, cheese and crackers, pumpkin soup, salad and bread, rice and chicken with dried beef and almond vanilla custard with fruit all over the course of 5 hours. We were stuffed, but everything was fabulous and I enjoyed every last bit *smile.Old yearbooks instigated about 2 hours of conversation. We hit our wall at about 2:15 am.I love these girls. I've known Laura (2nd from left) the longest. We were in preschool together. And then Amanda (3rd from left) who I met and instantly became best friends with at about age 10. Kara and Libby followed shortly after when the Catholic kids moved to the Middle School for 7th grade. One of my favorite pictures of us is on High School graduation day in 2001. Life has had it's ups and downs for each of us, but I think we'd all say we've been immensely blessed since the day this was taken...Yes, for sure I would say immensely blessed...

This is my wish for you: comfort on difficult days, smiles when sadness intrudes, rainbows to follow the clouds, laughter to kiss your lips, sunsets to warm your hearts, hugs when spirits sag, beauty for your eyes to see, friendships to brighten your being, faith so that you can believe, confidence for when you doubt, courage to know yourself, patience to accept the truth, and love to complete your life.

- Unknown.