Best Friends Ever

When I was a kid birthdays rolled around once every century or so. Or at least that was the way it felt at the time, with a countdown of months-to-weeks-to-days-to-tomorrow between occurrences of MY OWN VERY SPECIAL DAY.

Now, though, it feels as if every few days I'm being wished a happy day and have to think "Oh! I guess it is my birthday!" Between the recitals and the football games and the work deadlines and the mother-in-law's health issues, I'd barely registered that we're already in mid-November and that my birthday is tomorrow.

That's why I was genuinely puzzled when a box showed up with our mail yesterday. It had the return address of the bed-and-breakfast where my high school buddies and I had such a great reunion a few weekends ago, but I hadn't remembered ordering anything to be sent later. Had I left earrings in the bathroom? A charger plugged into an outlet?

I opened the box to find this inside:

Oh, yes, I gasped. The four of us had been in the b&b's gift shop when I discovered and coveted this set of measuring spoons. As a Kansas girl I love the sunflower motif, as a Kansas girl I love the oak leaves and butterflies that make them whimsical, as a Kansas girl I'm blown away by the combination of beauty and functionality. I didn't buy them, though, because...well, it just seemed so darned self-indulgent.

When the box containing these spoons showed up on the mail my shrunken heart swelled three sizes to think of the thoughtfulness of the sender. The only problem was that the sender did not identify herself.

There was a note slipped into the box:

I think we can agree, though, that this note may have been forged, seeing as how mouse in the corner did not have opposable thumbs and would have been incapable of taping the box shut. And unless the mouse in the corner was Mickey, the mouse also was not wearing pants so would have had no place to keep a wallet.

"But MomQueenBee," I'm sure you're asking, "don't you know the handwriting of the next best suspects, the three friends who are quite possibly  your oldest and dearest in the world?"

I believe I do, but the thing about my friends is this: Any one of them is wonderful enough and thoughtful enough (and, truth be told, sneaky enough) to have done this generous and lovely thing. I'm basking in the thought that I have the best friends ever, and that one of them is a mouse in the corner.

Happy birthday indeed!