Happy Birthday, Sister!

My sister's birthday is two days after Christmas, which might explain her obsession with that holiday! We were lucky enough to have the whole family still in Idaho for the celebration. My sister and I are 6 years apart in age, and growing up we weren't that close. She was almost in high school by the time we moved to Rexburg, and went to college and then left on a mission when I was still in Jr. High. Sometime after her mission, we started hanging out a lot. We begain calling each other "sister," as a joke from the Bernstein Bears.

When she'd been home from her mission for a couple of years, I went to Provo for a semester of school. Abby was living in Provo at the time, teaching at the same school she does now. We had a blast hanging out together all summer. She was engaged, so I also got to know Nick. Now we're living in Utah about 30 minutes away from each other, and we've become best friends. We often have Sunday dinner together, or "parties" where we periodically steal each other's cable. We babysit Stella often, they make us dinner and let me stay over when Landon goes out of town for field trips. Living by my sister has been the best part of our move to Utah.

Abby is exactly the kind of person I would like to be; beautiful, driven, intelligent, kind, very healthy - hence the cookbook we gave her for her birthday (we tease her about this, but secretly I'm jealous), a wonderful mother, a great teacher, crafty, a fabulous decorator and dresser, and an all-around fun sister! She's also very family-oriented. She's the one who always gets the siblings together for parties, thinks of nice things to do for our parents, and keeps us all in touch. I really appreciate all that she does for me and Landon, and for the whole Jackson family. Happy Birthday Abby! We love you tons!