Tonight my good friend Kristin, her husband Tom and son Tommy came over for dinner. It was so nice to see and spend time with them, and who I am thankful for today.
Kristin and I became friends when we both spent two summers during college working at a reading clinic for children and teenagers with severe learning disabilities. It was a pretty intense summer job-- mentally and emotionally draining, long hours, in depth programming-- but also a very rewarding job. Easily the most rewarding aspect of it, for me, was befriending Kristin along the way. She and I bonded over our lunch hours at a local bagel place, talking about the job or our personal lives. Kristin has always had the ability, then and now, to make me crack up. I love her for her amazing sense of humor, her firecracker spirit, her toughness, her huge heart, and her intelligence. We became friends rather quickly-- which is maybe apt to happen when you work 40 hour weeks with someone for the first time. But I think we became friends quickly because we were always meant to be friends. We relate on a lot of levels, and I think Kristin "gets me"(sorry for the cliche) in a way that people I've known my whole life don't. Just tonight she told me she thought I would like the Kinect because you can row a canoe in the air to collect coins. It's a random, weird connection to make, and yet, dead on. You know you are good friends with someone when they know nuances about your personality, and appreciate you for them, We are ourselves unabashedly around each other, we always have been, and it's a friendship I value deeply.
Kristin has been with Tom ever since I met her, so I've known him through her for as long as we've been friends. They have a relationship that I really admire. I teared up when she walked down the aisle at her wedding last May, because I knew she was marrying her best friend, and I was so happy that they were getting the fairy tale wedding they, as a couple, so rightly deserved. Tom is down-to-earth, hilarious, genuine, a great husband and dad. They are one of those couples I know Kegan and I will be friends with our whole lives.
I still remember the day Kristin told me she was pregnant, and I was so happy for her. She is my first friend to have a baby, and while I've been around babies my whole life since becoming an aunt at 10 years old, there's something different about the babies of your friends. I haven't quite put my finger on what it is yet, but it's cool. Tommy is absolutely adorable, and I loved crawling around and playing with him. He was kind enough to be patient with us keeping him up later than usual, but learning how to blow bubbles in a water glass might have helped the situation. Besides loving Tommy for the beautiful baby that he is, it is so wonderful to watch Kristin as a mom. She's a great one, although I always knew she would be. Even when she was cheap with the stones.
All three members of the SanFilippo family are amazing people, and very important to me. I'm thankful that they came down late on a Monday to hang out with us and for their friendship, and especially for Kristin, who still knows my bagel-lunch order by heart, god love her.
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