I appreciate and adore all the gifts, but there was one in particular that really moved me:

I love the white sapphires (sapphire is my birthstone), but most of all, I love what I was told they represented: my daughters and my bonus daughters. Wanna know the best part, though?  I had decided this already on my own the minute I opened it!  I’ve given each stone one of the girls’ names, and yesterday, I touched each one and said a little prayer for her.

TechBooHusband and I will be celebrating our birthdays (his was 2 weeks ago), by treating ourselves to a French language study course in preparation for Paris 2011 for our 40th bdays.  At exactly midnight, however, he gave me another gift: He serenaded me with a very…grown-up… rendition of “Happy Birthday.”  He’s so competitive, I did my best breathless Marilyn Monroe “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” for his birthday, and he had to try and top it!  But seriously…I know he remembers that my mother and grandmother serenaded me every birthday of my life, whether I was 1,000 miles away or in my bedroom right down the hall from them, until their deaths.  He knows how much I cherished this tradition, and he’s working to keep it alive.

I am thankful for all the gifts, material and aural.  I am thankful for friends’ and loved ones well-wishes via text, Twitter, and FB.  I thank God for all the love and positivity and joy and blessings that surround me, daily.  I am thankful for another year to experience it all, and to hopefully bless others as I have been blessed.