Oh Happy Day

happy birthday to my sister
{who has always looked
better in a baseball hat than I have}

Dear Bibberlicious,
Happy birthday. I love you more than Ken's Kash penny candy, or that lemon chicken we used to make when we played restaurant at Aunt B's. More than the turtle we found in Grandpa's garden. I love you more than you love Wheat Thins and melted cheese, your Billy Joel River of Dreams CD (back in the day) or Shop N' Go fro yo. I love you more than samples from the deli at Crystal Palace, burnt mallows at The Lot, and the pile of grass behind the garage at the red brick house we liked to sit on. More than peanut butter square day at Bonneville. More than playing Round Robin ping pong on Grandpa's table with Jessie and Carly, or bean bags at Grandma and Grandpa Haglund's. I love you more than making things out of cardboard boxes at 1936 or more than you loved digging to China with Romney and Brian. I love you more than the round table in our playroom and more than the sparkly butterfly tile bathroom. I love you more than you loved wearing khaki shorts and two t-shirts, or more than I loved GAP jeans with the patch on the back pocket and my Wendy Spencer bows. I love you more than water weenie-ing on Yuba Lake. I love you more than Mad About You re-runs. More than setting Rich in front of the fireplace or telling him he was born without...you know. I love you more than driving really fast over train tracks in the Rose Shop van. More than pastries in Paris or cello and violin with Kate and Kristin or finally reaching the end of Pachabel's Cannon, the quartet version. I love you more than Sundays with the brothers from the N.V. spent watching Unkle Pensoir bounce up the stairs on that weird toy. I love you more than ALL the salt box houses on Cape Cod.

Thank you for being my friend and confidant. Thank you for telling me it's OK I'm not good at physics and for offering to beat up dudes free of charge. Thank you for marrying D and for bringing Baby Naomi to our family. Seeing you as a mother makes me the most happy. Thank you for letting me keep that brown sweatshirt that you probably don't know I still have.

I luff you. I lurve you. I loaf you. I loughph(x)e you.
Marfie