>Happiness is…

> Friends you don’t have to explain yourself to.

Retail therapy, even if it’s just wandering the aisles aimlessly and making fun of stuff you’d never buy (like leopard-print fuzzy slippers and pink leather newsboy hats, and ridiculous wreaths made of flannel snowmen…oh wait. I did buy that.)

A hot cuppa something with someone who is willing to listen, laughs at your jokes, and doesn’t think you’re an idiot for feeling like that.

Last minute, sheepish invitations to a movie meant for teenagers, but secretly enjoyed by women in their 30’s (and 40’s. and 50’s. ok, really, you’d have to be dead not to appreciate the eye candy in this film…)

Giggling in the dark like preteens, snorting at the appalling dialogue and speculating how much worse the next film is going to be.

Having someone who knows what it’s like to be terrorized by a two year old.

Lunching on “crack soup” (our nickname for the outrageously addictive chicken and wild rice soup from Panera)

Friends from whom to borrow, to burden, to bless and be blessed.

Bottom line: happiness is having gal pals to enjoy the good, the bad, and the ugly with.

Sidebar: The day after Thanksgiving, along with the decking and sparkling and gilttering that goes on, we all pile on the couch after dinner and we have the official start of the Christmas season.

We watch George Bailey discover what it truly means to be rich. I cry buckets. Even Gabe sniffs a time or two. In a season of excess and consumerism, it is such a pleasant reminder that it’s not WHAT we have, but with whom we share it, that matters. I’m so thankful for my girlfriends!