Want to hear something crazy? My closest friends are girls that I met in middle school.

MIDDLE SCHOOL!

Those awkward years you’re supposed to hate and look back on with loathing and embarrassment!

Middle school, and my whole schooling experience actually, was pretty fantastic {outside of developing the insane acne I still struggle with as I enter my 30’s…Some people just never grow up, right?}.

This ornament was a gift from a friend that feels way more like a sister these days. In high school we would joke about how we were going to be friends forever and one day join the Red Hat Society together. This isn’t all the girls, we’re specifically missing Sabrina in this Red Hat mix, but they just didn’t make an ornament with enough women on it to portray the amazing friendships I’ve been gifted with all these years.

Who knew that during those years when most people find themselves lost in adolescence, I would find myself found by girls who would really know me, love me, and accept me for a lifetime. Julie, Stacey, Courtney, Sabrina….thank you for always being there no matter the span of time between texts, calls, coffee chats, and dinner dates. I love you all so dearly.

My Christmas wish would be that everyone could know friendship the way I do, and that they would hang an ornament on their tree each year to remind them just how richly blessed they are.

With love, Mal