The best 24 in a long time!

I just had the best 24 hours that I have had in a long time. It starts out with me going to my sister's house last night and buying a paper, to look at the ads. I bought my sister a pair of fuzzy cozy socks that I am not sure that she was thrilled with, but said that she loved them. Hung out there for a few hours then headed back to Pittsburgh.
Left and headed home, where I had a great night with the roommates, snow battling and laughing.
Somewhere in there (sorry I'm leaving all the details out but this IS the internet) I stumbled upon the ability to make a large purchase. Immediately plans began running through my head... what do I do with this new found equity -- and then I remembered my sister, her three children, and the pathetic digital camera that she has from 2002... You have to love it and squeeze it just to get it to take a picture. And then I remembered how much she loves my camera and always says how nice that it is. And so it was decided.

So as I began shopping for a new digital camera today, I started with the ones that were on sale to see if there were any deals. There was a nice looking Kodak for a good price, but I haven't used Kodak before and I wasn't sure if that is what I wanted. Finally, I settled on a Sony H10 -- just enough bells and whistles for her to learn, good quality, decent price. After visiting three stores and giving a nice older couple (headed to Alaska on a cruise) a quick 101 in digital camera information (they did decide on the Kodak by the way) I landed at Best Buy saying "pack it up I'll take it, and the memory card, and the warranty." **Always get the extended warranty on digital cameras**

Then, I was off to Shaler Middle School because my sister and her family were at a wrestling tournament there. But they weren't there... So then I was off to her house, which is about an hour away, because Lord knows that this couldn't wait. (I'm terrible at keeping presents a secret.)

So I finally get my sister on the phone and she sounds worried, because I have been trying to get ahold of her. We decide to meet at Sheets. I make her close her eyes in her car and set the camera in the box. I will NEVER forget the look on her face when she opened her eyes. After explaining how I came into being able to do this for her, I hopped in her car and we went shopping. Which was funny because we were both so dazed from happiness that we both kept running into things. Finally I told her - look, you need this stuff you have to shop! And we laughed. She called her husband and he was happy. We showed the kids and they were excited as I quietly whispered in my nephew's ear "It's better than my camera." So that he could understand it in 10 year old language - then he was excited. It was a little daunting because we had to wait for the lithium ion battery to fully charge (which felt like days) but it was SO worth it when the light on the charger went out and we got to play with the camera. My sister and I just had the best time in the world sitting on the couch taking picture after picture of the Christmas Tree, because the kids were long in bed by the time the battery was done.

Since I am the youngest in my family, often I feel like everyone is taking care of me. It was so great to be the one to give instead of accept this time. My sister, God bless her, offered to take my old camera and give me the new one, but I told her the truth. "Nope, you deserve the new, shiny, just-took-the-stickers-off-of-it camera. And she does.

There was enough happy in this day to last through 1000 bad days. It will make my day every time I think of her using it, and it will make her day every time she does. What a GREAT day... I am thankful for my family and for the opportunity to make them genuinely happy by being able to do it.

:-) Michele