Good morning, 

I’m drafting this up on the flight back to Chicago, but it’ll go live Monday morning. We made a quick little jaunt back to California for the weekend to celebrate my mama’s birthday. 

It’s never enough time with family and we were all emotional saying our goodbyes today.

Sister and Drew and Maya flew down from NorCal. And Masi and Uncle also flew west from New York to celebrate.

It was a full, full house. With so much noise and chatter and love. 

The village, the village, the village. 

Sister and I have spent years trying to think of the perfect gift for my mom. The thing is… she’s good at buying what she needs and she really wants so little. Decluttering is her favorite activity.

She is someone whose love language is “words of affirmation.” So we thought it’d be best to make photo books of her with her grandbabies, along with a poem expressing just how much we love her.

And I don’t wanna toot my own horn, but I think we nailed it this year. 

It was very clear from her reaction that this was the perfect gift. 

That and having us all home with her. 

I can’t wait ’til we don’t have to hop on a flight to see our family. But it’ll do for now. (I’m pretty sure the BEST gift we could give our parents is to move back to the state of CA. We’re working on it, family. Promise). 

Hope you all have a happy Monday (and remember to be kind!).