Make new friends but keep the old

I called my friend Mariann tonight. I haven't seen her in over a year and haven't talked to her in at least a few months but it was really fun chatting and catching up on our lives. She lives in Idaho with her six kids. Three of her kids were born while they lived in Boston while her husband (also her cousin but I'll save that story for another blog--remind me to tell you about the National Enquirer story) attended MIT. They left almost ten years ago and I've been to visit them three times since then. We hung out a lot when they lived here; celebrating birthdays, holidays, taking day trips, playing games, playing pranks, going to Maine and Vermont, and I babysat and borrowed their kids--I have lots of fun memories of the Hiltons. They are one of my favorite families that I've met while living here. Here is a picture of us last year when they were visiting (isn't that a lovely watercolor finish on the photo). Mariann said the kids talk about visiting Boston again; they had a really fun time last year.

I make lots of new friends but keep lots of the old and Mariann is definitely one of the gold.