Hug Your Sister Week -No. 2: My Birthday Gift

More than a month before my 40th birthday, I began receiving birthday cards on a daily basis. My big sister, Jenny, actually mailed to me 40 birthday cards, one a day. The last card coming on my birthday along with a gift she had made for me, a book of thoughts, ideas and lessons straight from her heart to mine.

The covers were decopaged with photos of my sisters and I as very young girls, and the photo on the back of Jenny comforting me as a baby. Inside the book, she began it with a beautiful introduction, and then the next pages with a list of 40 things she learned about being 40: “Growing up, out & older Here are a few of my favorites:

#1 It’s okay to tell your pajamas and slippers you love them.

#2 It’s not allergies that make my nose itch -it’s my new mustache.

#6 Grey hair is beautiful and it goes with any color.

#10 I’m too old for peer pressure.

#15 I still think guys with rock band hair are cool.

#18 I refuse to be uncomfortable if there is another option.

#23 My thoughts are worth writing down.

#24 My butt is big no matter what I wear.

#40 I need my sisters more than ever.

She went on to list her favorite words and sounds, everything from forgiveness, giggle and hopscotch to chippy, sassafrass and “Hi Jen, it’s Cath.”

She wrote a pages of things she learned from me and pages of her favorite Bible scriptures. And on the last page she wrote the most beautiful letter of love to me.

This is probably the most special gift anyone has ever made for me.
Thanks sis. 143.