Great Italian Birthday Gift

Well today is my 25th Birthday (don't forget it's my Dad's Birthday, too!). Thanks for all the greetings all of you have sent through snail mail, e-mail, and facebook! This is only the second birthday I've had that I haven't been with my family. The only other time was on my 21st birthday, when I lived in Cincinnati for the summer. It was probably good I wasn't with my family for the 21st (j/k Mom and Dad). For this birthday I received one of the greatest gifts ever. Since I wasn't at home for my birthday, my 4 yr old nephew Nathan and 1 yr old niece Olivia (my cousin Jennifer's kids) decided to send me a special greeting. They made signs and cards to wish me a Happy Birthday and sent them to me through snail mail.

I think it was exciting for the kids because 1) My sister and cousin had them do it on Nathan's birthday (so he was on a Birthday high) 2) There's this fascination of sending something across the world for kids and 3) They got to draw. My sister helped them with the words and the kids traced out their hands and feet. Olivia apparently had fun with the tracing part and didn't want to move her feet off the paper even when she was done tracing.

My parents also sneakily left behind cards with my roommates when they were here in May. My roommate gave them to me about a week ago. I decided to wait till last night to open them. My family gave me a season pass to Disney again. About 2 years ago, my sister started getting season passes and that eventually spread to the rest of my family (including Nathan & Olivia's family). It has been really fun to go to Disney. It seems that there are certain ages that Disney is fun to go to. College age seems to be one, especially when you can go with kids like Nathan & Olivia. It's one of the things the kids and I are looking forward to once I get back.

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