“The most important thing in life is your family. There are days you love them, and others you don’t, but in the end they’re the people you always come home to. Sometimes it’s the family you’re born into and sometimes it’s the one you make for yourself.”
If you followed me on Mommy Ever After then you know that I have a major thing for Sex and the City. And this quote has never applied more than during this phase in my life; when my friends have stepped in and played with and watched and bathed and, at times, virtually raised my children.
Tonight we had a Sunday night dinner, sharing chinese food family style, sitting around my dining room table and choking with laughter. We played games with my daughter where she’d put a jelly bean in one of our mouths and we’d have to guess the flavor. We reminisced about elementary school and the people who had crazy handwriting or who moved away. I even shed a few tears. This is my tribe. These are my people. This is the family I have created for myself and my children. I feel overwhelmingly blessed.
One of my friends, (you might remember J from her many appearances over on MEA),
brought us all valentines, including a very special piece of home decor that she found that is her nickname for me.
How cool is this? And I could put it somewhere fun like up in the playroom, but as I’ve said before, I want my living room, which is arguably the most formal space in my home, to be a place in which we live. 
So now my sophisticated windowsill has a fun and Foxy accent. And I love it to bits. Just like I love the girl who gave it to me. 
And speaking of friends, remember my dear girlfriend whose beautiful new home I’m helping to decorate? She was here. She did the jelly bean taste test. She made fun of my husband so badly that I almost spit out my drink. And she just sent me this photo of her housewarming gift. 
Pretty darn perfect, no? Again, just like my friend.
And even when the feelings of the blechs started to creep in tonight, as they sometimes do, I had my friends around me, to remind me of how blessed I am (this girl was here too, of course) and they renewed my strength and my faith and my happiness.
I love you, my friends who have become my family. I love you more than you will ever know.
511 Ever After 