last thanksgiving update - another good one!

so yesterday was October 8th and that is our friends' S&D's daughter's birthday...and she turned 8!!! anyway, they planned to have thanksgiving dinner yesterday and incorporate their daughters birthday as well.

a little about their daughter. her name is J. she is delightful. from the first minute she saw me she "glommed" me and has not let go since. every time we see her she spends the entire time in my lap or in my arms. she is beautiful, incredibly intelligent, incredibly-gifted and i love her. she pronounces my name "kym-bah".

i love her. she is so smart.

we went to S&D's, very dear friends of ours - in fact, S is the very first friend we made when we showed up at that first community event over a year and a half ago and she took us under her wing and to what we now call "the head table". she and D have 2 daughters, both named J - J1 is 13, super-freakin-intelligent and has just joined army cadets. and loves it! J2 just turned 8 yesterday and she is a royal terror.

so we went to S&D's...had a fabulous turkey dinner meal with all of the fixings...i ate all of the gravy without realizing it - oops, my bad - but S just laughed it off. D's Mom and brother were also there and it was nice to see them again. J2 kept saying throughout supper - "kym-bah, this is the best thanksgiving ever!". and we would all ask her - "why?". and she would roll her eyes and say "because it's my boothday too!" - bahahahahahah! she rubbed me and touched me and put her feet on me and sat on me all throughout dinner. the weight of her little body felt good and felt healing after this weekend. one life passes...and one continues.

dinner is over and we all go into the living room to open presents. "kym-bah, you sit beside me". she tears through gifts with no thought of anything except ripping open the paper and getting the gift. once she sees the gift, she dumps it in my lap and moves on to the next. i try and re-pack the gifts as best as i can.

the week previously when her mother, S, asked us to come to supper and the party, i asked her if J2 liked barbies. i have a collection of barbies and they really have no place here in the Manor. S said that J2 loooooves barbies so i told S about my collection. and S said that i could not give J2 collectors items because she would rip them out of the box - destroy their clothes, their hair, etc.

anyway, i gave her the first in the series, collector's edition Pink Ice 1996 barbie. it's worth about $38 bucks so not too expensive. and it was in it's original box and the box had never been opened. J2 screamed when she saw that the box was from me and jambaloney. she tore through the wrapping like a meth head searching under sofa cushions and then screamed "oh this is the best present ever!" - bahahahahahahah! she ooohed and awwwed and she read the front of the box "foost in uh see-rees, coe-lektuhs uh-dee-shon, pink ice". then she hugged me and hugged me. i told her that i had had that barbie for over 15 years.

"kym-bah, you never took her out of the box?" - no, honey, i was collecting barbies then and she is my favourite. "kym-bah, can i take her out of the box?". of course honey.

the box is a goner in seconds. like totally ripped to shreds and there is no taping it back together. the two of us undo all of the twist-ties together. her mother says, "J2, that is a collectors item and you don't play with it. we will put it on it's stand on your dresser."

J2 - "kymbah, what's wrong with her hair? i can't get these curls out!". she rips off the elastic holding the barbie's beautifully-coifed hair and then starts trying to brush it. "kym-bah, you hold the head and pull when i say" as she starts trying to brush the barbie's hair. after she tried brushing for a bit, she got tired and put the barbie on the table on it's stand. her sister, J1 said "J2, why did you put the barbie on it's stand?"

J2 put her arms on her hips, rolled her eyes, and in the most petulant voice i have ever heard said "because it's a COE-LEKTER'S UH-DEE-SHON"!!!!!!! the barbie's perfectly coifed curls were sticking out everywhere in something that looked like a Medusa-afro, the back of the dress was ripped, we had lost the silver shoes somewhere in the couch....but yes, it WAS a collector's edition and she knew it. she loved it.

we all killed ourselves laughing.

what a way to end thanksgiving. with many hugs and kisses from 2 beautiful girls and from our friends. with bellies full of turkey and all of the fixings.

it has been quite the weekend.