My favorite Christmas present, revistited

First off, a hearty hug goes out to Desiree for coming through surgery as well as can be expected. Not a great way to spend the holidays, but it sounds like it could have been worse. Let that remind us that, for all we shop for, the best Christmas presents are the ones you can't pay for. Which gets me right into today's post...

Bloggers are all somewhat fond of playing the "One year ago" game, and having this sort of annotated, running diary makes all of that very easy. It makes for good reflection (and also bails you out of the "what do I write?" jam somedays).

I am no exception, and today is one of those days:-) It wasn't actually a year ago today, it was really a year ago last weekend...but I got the best Christmas present I have ever gotten. Ironically, it came from the person who probably disappointed me most over the course of my life as compared to the role he should have played. I guess I never thought about that before...interesting.

Anyway, I miss my little Tinkerbelle:-) The truth is that I barely know her, but I still miss her. I wish I saw her every day. I wish I could drop her off and pick her up at school. I wish I could take her to the movies. I wish I could braid her hair and giggle with her. I wish I could be a full-time big sister.

I know it is generally not really beneficial to play "what ifs" but I thought of another interesting question a little while back...what would I have done if I had always known about her? What if I was around when she was born and was a part of her life as she grew up? The hardest part of my decisions to 1) leave for Arizona, and 2) move to Boston was the thought of being away from Munchkin. Turns out that it was not really relevant to point #2, but I didn't know that at the time:-)

Would I have made the same decisions if I had two little sisters and not just one? Would I have made the decision to move Munchkin here with me rather than stay in Chicago if I was also leaving another little sister? I don't know...there is a good chance that I wouldn't have been nearly as protective of Tinkerbelle as I am of Munchkin. She needs less protecting.

I guess there are no percentages in wondering, but it does get me thinking about all of the unexpected twists and turns that life can take.

You just never know how things are gonna turn out.