dear pepper,

thank you for your most perfect christmas present. 

thank you for teaching my kids the art of negotiation so that we could have a night away {and they could have 2 new wii games}.  thank you for following through on your word to send us a giftcard to treat us to dinner at ruth’s chris steakhouse (even if you had to overnight it).  thank you for choosing an absolutely beautiful suite with a gorgeous view for us to stay in.  thank you for giving me the heads-up about the $35 valet parking fee at the hotel so i didn’t hyperventilate when i saw the cost and drive around all over downtown seattle trying to find a better rate (that wasn’t  available).  thank you for encouraging us to enjoy the luxuriously soft bathrobes provided in our suite.  thank you for suggesting the short walk to pike’s place market.  thank you for reminding us what a unique city we live in- unique as in clogging (holla emily and sarah)-and-singing-and-playing-a-piano-on-wheels-on-every-street-corner-for-money and protesting-anything-and-everything-that-must-be-protested unique.  thank you for giving us an excuse to buy junk food to bring back to our hotel room.  thank you for mentioning that h&m was right around the corner.  thank you for texting me to make sure everything was perfect when we checked into the hotel.  thank you for following up with me after christmas and actually pressuring me to choose a date to get away with damon.  thank you for causing us to remember the delicious hot, fresh donuts at the daily dozen donut stand inside pike’s place market.  thank you for the opportunity to create some funny (/awkward), memorable moments inside a downtown seattle walgreens.  thank you for the excuse to sleep in with my husband until 11 a.m.  thank you for making me realize how much i love to spend time alone with my husband.  thank you for making me think about and wonder if it’s possible to get away like this every month.  seriously.  thank you for creating the moment of pure joy (and a trip down memory lane that involved both sarah and dad) when i saw a benetton storefront inside the mall across the street.  thank you for pre-paying for our hotel room so we didn’t have to wonder how (or if) you were going to pay for that.  thank you for providing a beautiful, quiet, exciting environment for damon and i to relax and enjoy each other’s company in.  thank you for knowing me well enough to know that there couldn’t have been a more perfect and needed gift for me right now.  thank you for inspiring me to explore the diversity of downtown seattle- at night- even if i did feel like an old lady when i zipped up my purse and held it tight against my body.  thank you for giving us the opportunity to take way too many self-portrait/couple edition pictures.  thank you for making us feel like staying on the 27th floor was because the 27th is our anniversary date (even though i know you had no idea).  thank you for causing me to reflect on how judgmental i am of other people- just by the way they look and dress (do they judge me because i look so “normal”?).  thank you for recognizing the need i have for you to show up in my life right now.  thank you for a memorable weekend that i will forever associate with the “christmas miracle” from my brother who i didn’t know cared.  it was perfect.

             

        

love your adoring sister,

amy