Patrick

Sometimes I stop and realize I've not given credit where credit is due. Patrick, my lovely husband, deserves to be recognized.

He is my rock, especially in rough spots...when it really counts. He has been so good to me during the past few months as we dealt with my brother Brian going from bad to worse and finally passing. He was the ONLY reason I was able to scrape through these last two weeks.

He is one devoted papa. Maggie is a huge daddy's girl for good reason. They have their own little world together.

One thing my husband is really great at is gift giving. He always manages to pull off the perfect, thoughtful gift. Coming from someone who agonizes over what to give, picks the wrong thing, or just gives up and gives gift cards, it's very impressive. This year for my birthday he gave me:

A 1943 Blakiston edition of my all time favorite book, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I've loved this book since I first read it my junior year of high school. I almost named my daughter Francis after the main character in the book, Francie Nolan. Gosh I love that book.

How does he DO it? He even had to give it to me under the worst of circumstances--my brother passed away on my birthday--and he still made it special.