One in a Million

Kristen's birthday was Feb. 21. Now you have to know a few things about Kristen. One, she plans her birthday for a year, even agonizing over who she will invite. A long time ago I told her she could not invite or talk to anyone about it until right before, because she planned so far in advance. So on her birthday she had a friend party and invited mostly boys, because that is who she likes to play with(she loves sports) and a few girls that love to play too. After the party, she voiced, "Mom, thank you so much.  That was way more fun than I thought it was going to be." Now for a person that dreams of her party for a whole year, I was surprised that we could even come close to her expectations.

The other thing is she loves to write. Words have always been her gift. She writes stories of course, but she is one of the few letter writers left in America. She loves the mail and has her two cousins, Page and Emma, Grandma and Grandpa Miller, Uncle Sam and Grammy(who lives in town), occasionally, as pen pals. So for Christmas she received a lot of stationary and writing supplies. For her birthday, she asked for a journal and a Journal Jar, you know the slips of paper with ideas for writing in your journal. She was serious and so we had to accommodate her. Annalisa typed the journal jar ideas, I covered the journal jar/container and we found a smaller journal, because she already has a big one.

Then when we had the family dinner/party, we got the same response. " The presents were really awesome!" She loved the journal jar and was about as content and overjoyed as a kid could be. She also received a dress from Grammy and Grandad. It's so refreshing to have a child be so grateful and happy about her birthday. Usually birthdays include some crying. Not this time.