We all have that person.  The one that we think the world of.  The one that we tell all of our deepest, darkest, and silliest secrets to.  The one that can make you laugh so hard you cry.  The one that can make you cry so hard at the sound of the words “good bye” that you find yourself laughing over all the good times recently spent together.  The one that never makes you feel out of place, or like a third wheel.  The one who will be patient and kind, especially when you are completely terrified on the top of an Alp.  The one that it’s okay to dress identical as, at five years old, and at twenty-five years old.  The one that you share a garden gnome with (what?! doesn’t everyone do that?!)  The one that you have known forever, or maybe just a short amount of time, but it feels like forever.  In my case, I’ve known her forever.  Actually, since I was born.

We grew up together, with an ocean between us.  When we were young we spent our summers together playing dress up and talking about our Prince Charmings.  As we got older we found ourselves traveling long distances, running into random adventures, and still… talking about our Prince Charmings, wondering what our futures would hold, what our families would look like, and where we would end up.  Last year, we spent months digging through wedding magazines, picking colors, dresses, and details, and planning a bilingual, international wedding.  Even at 25 and 27 years old, we had a sleepover last May.  I remember laying in her tiny room with a baby book from the 1980s, that had her mom and dad’s handwriting in it, with the name “Kirsten” written in the back of it.  We dug through the book picking out possible names of future children.  We both knew it was time to call it a night when we giggled so hard we cried over the name Zsa Zsa… (Which we were both pronouncing as “Za-Za”)  Crazy, but the name stuck, and for the past 9 months, we have been referring to the bump on my best friends belly as “Zsa Zsa.”  Well today, the Twenty-third of December, Two Thousand and Ten… my favorite person in the entire world, and her Prince Charming, finally met their Zsa Zsa.

Happy Birthday to Benjamin Noel.  You have two of the best people in the entire world as your parents… you’re a lucky little boy.