Celebrating Friends

Yesterday we got a package in the mail. A no customs charges, tax-free package, I must add. It was sitting on the doorstep when Emma arrived home from school and she immediately called my mobile phone to tell me it was there. I assured her I would be home within a very few minutes and we could check it out together.

I was and we did.

Inside was a birthday present for me from a friend in Phoenix. A lovely book, A Year by the Sea: Thoughts of an Unfinished Woman written by Joan Anderson, which I am very much looking forward to cuddling up with as soon as possible. As I was tenderly reflecting on such a thoughtful gift, reading the inscription she left inside the front cover, I found myself getting misty in the missing of a friend who is physically so far away, but hardly a step out of sync in simply being there for me. As she has always been. Interrupting my reverie was the whoop and holler from my 11-year old as she finished inspecting the contents of the padded envelope.

"oh, yeah! SKITTLES! Skittles, Mom! Oh! YEAH! These are for me, thank you very much. Oh, yeah!"

A pause for breath and she added:

"...and bubble gum easter eggs! Oh, aren't they sooooooo cute?"

Everyone has that certain something that makes them go 'Whoop'. If you ask my kids, a breakfast of bubble gum with a skittles chaser just might be the nearest thing to tasting heaven they could imagine. Except for possibly a big scoop of American peanut butter (any brand will do) smothered on Bisquick batter pancakes.

And for me? A book, a note, a sweet surprise in the mail. This is the type of thing that plasters a grin on my face and calls the 'woo-hoo' emotion right to the top. Which is generally evidenced as a tear rolling down my cheek.

Which one did.

Gosh, aren't friends great?