“SURPRISE!!!”

Sunday my mom and I traveled down to Chicago to surprise my sister for her birthday. 

Since my sister, mother of seven, wife of one and a preschool teacher, is by far the hardest working woman I know, we try to make a big deal out of any occasion we can for her. 

Her daughters came up with this great idea after our previous trip to Chicago was cancelled.  Needless to say my mom and I jumped at the chance and then proceeded to pray to the Weather and Health Gods that all would go smoothly so we could make it down there.

Our prayers paid off because the sun was shining and the roads were bone dry.  And amazingly enough, there wasn’t even a runny nose found on any of those cute seven faces.

The ride down to Chicago was filled with many phone calls between our car and my nieces and brother-in-law as we tried to organize the perfect time for the onslaught of surprise.  To say we were all excited was quite the understatement.

All the hard work and careful planning paid off as Debby was so happy and so surprised it made us all laugh with happiness.  At one point she even exclaimed while looking at mom and I, “I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU ARE STANDING HERE!  IN MY LIVING ROOM!”

It was a short visit but a VERY fun one.   

One filled with many cute faces:

a big birthday party for both Debby and my nephew Aryeh (who’s birthday is Wednesday):

The lighting of the last night of Hanukkah:

A very special Von Trapp like family sing-along:

although I don’t think the Von Trapp’s sang Hanukkah songs.  But maybe that was in the Sound of Music 2.

And of course some of Aunt Becky’s famous self portraits and goofy pictures with my cute eldest niece.

I think, I hope, this was just what my sister needed to give her that extra umph in order to get through the rest of the winter in a house full of nine. 

Happy Birthday Dear Sister.  I love you so.