HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AUNT CHRISSY!

Happy Birthday to Aunt Chrissy! Stewey, Bosco, and I did our best to make a perfect day for our girl, and methinks we might have succeeded. We actually started last evening with a great dinner out (Aunt Chrissy requested steak, don't you know), and then we continued the party this morning with brunch and presents. My present was "Strawberry Garden", and I'm happy to report that it is already hanging in her house near her stitchy chair. Stewey used his AMEX Black card and sprung for some Vera Bradley, and Bosco started his mom's collection of teeney weeney little mouse figurines called "Wee Forest Folk". Then, for dinner, I made her very favorite....a lovely roasted leg of lamb. (I had ham. Not a big fan of the lamb.) We stitched a little, enjoyed the beautiful sunshine, and watched a few fun movies for good measure. Woo Hoo!

Most people don't know this, but Aunt Chrissy is extra special to me for several reasons (not the least of which is that she taught me to stitch). When our mom was pregnant with my little sis, the doctors discovered a tumor on an ovary and told Mom that she would likely not carry the pregnancy to full term. On the day that she and Dad got this news, they came home to find that I was hiding all of my toys around the house. (I was four at the time.) When confronted with a "Coni Jo, what the heck are you doing?", I apparently responded with "God told me that I was going to have a little sister and that she would be named Chrissy, so I'm saving some toys for her." Considering the fact that nobody had told me Mom was expecting, they took this as a sign. (And no, I've not had any conversations like that since, despite my best attempts to get the upcoming PowerBall numbers.)

So several months later, there I was, sitting at Grandma's kitchen table with my birthday cake in front of me. I can remember it as though it was yesterday. There were five candles, the cake was chocolate, and I was wearing a short set that kept going up my heiney because it was probably too small for me (I had my favorite outfits and wore them waaaaay past their prime even then). So just as I was making my wish for a little red wagon, in walks Mom and Dad with this tiny little bundle of joy. "Happy Birthday, CJ. Here's your little sister named Chrissy." (OK, in case the math is confusing you....Chrissy was born on the 12th and came home from the hospital on the 14th.) And it wasn't until I was about 38 years old that I realized that our birthdays are almost nine months to the day after our Dad's birthday. So even though I am convinced that I was conceived through immaculate conception, alas, it is not the case. My parents actually had relations.

38 years later and I am loving every minute of my relationship with my little sister. We laugh and carry on like buffoons most of the time, but we sure know what's important in life and how to be there for one another. I never realized how cool it would be to have a sister for my best friend. It just freakin' rocks.

So Happy Happy Birthday, Aunt Chrissy! I hope all of your birthday wishes come true, especially if they involve winning the lottery and buying us a big house by the ocean filled with sitchy supplies and our pups.

Oh. And a pool boy named Brad.