Happy 2nd Birthday Home Sweet Home

Dear House,

Happy 2nd Birthday. Two years ago tonight, you became our home sweet home. The movers had just left. We were surrounded by boxes and filled with giddy excitement. You were perfect. During the past two years, inside your walls, so much has happened. You became even more perfect with the addition of a patio where footballs games are watched, fish are fed, marshmallows are roasted and bikes are ridden. And your basement is a child's dream complete with a playhouse, a play kitchen, crafts galore, a dressing room and a stage. And there is even a big screen, a workout room, and a bar for the adults too! (Pop outdid himself again).

We designed you to be welcoming and open, because we want you to always be filled with our family and friends. You have hosted the most amazing parties, the first when you were only six weeks old. Isabella was baptized and we had our first of many parties. Everyone oohed and aahed over you and the baby too! There have been cozy Christmas parties, a Superhero bash complete with Spiderman and kids in capes, a neighborhood block party ("sure we are the new people, we would love to host"), two baby showers, a lot of happy hours, bookclubs, dinners and playdates, and most recently a Garden Party that was the talk of the town. I have a sign in your kitchen that says "Sit Long - Talk Much." Your openness allows for just that.

I noticed just the other day that whenever I tell anyone my favorite part of you it is always a different spot. Sometimes it is the front porch where I like to sit and drink my coffee on summer mornings. Sometimes it is the family room where we have family movie nights and fires in the fireplace almost every night in the winter. Sometimes it is Alex or Isabella's room because I spend some of my most precious moments in those rooms reading and singing to my babies. Sometimes it is my kitchen because in my family, as in many families, it is the heart of our house. It is where we congregate and eat and drink and sit and talk.

In the past two years you have had some bumps and bruises. Your floors have some scratches and have been victim of many spills. Your walls have been dinged and even written on a time or two. (No worries though, Isabella now repeats the mantra..."I write only on the paper"). But to me, these imperfections do not make you imperfect. In many ways they make you even more of a home. You are lived in, loved in, fought in, played in, slept in, danced in....inside you we are making memories and living a life that most can only dream of living. Thank you for the memories we have made and for being the place we will call Home Sweet Home for many, many years to come.

Jamie