Good Friends

Our really good friends moved away last year to Indiana, but came back to Atlanta to visit this weekend.

You know the kind of friends I am talking about... the kind of friends that just fit perfectly. I should back up a little. It was actually 4 couples in our little group. K & C, S & R, P & K and us. But so much happened in just one short year. 2005. We hung out at each others houses every weekend. We went camping, shopping, our kids played ball together. Life was good. The same time K & C moved, P passed away suddenly at the age of 35 with what appeared to be a heart attack. S & R got divorced shortly afterwards due to a affair. I just look back and wonder how everything that seemed perfect at the time wasn't.

So this is why I am so glad they came back to visit. I needed to see them. You can say and do anything with real friends. Just sitting out on the back porch, telling stories and cooking out were some of best times we had.

So we picked up right where we left off. Back porch stories, fond memories, and good & bad times.

We got to telling stories of Christmas' when we were fresh, young couples. You know, the "Griswald" stories. They were telling us about their first Christmas. So Wife had these high expectations of a beautiful first Christmas. They rode out 45 miles to find the perfect tree, only to find the place closed down. They search high and low for hours and finally after everyone's grumpy, hungry and tired they decide to head home with no tree. On the way home they stop at a Kroger to pick up dinner and of course find the perfect tree there. So K ties the perfect tree to the jeep and they head home. One exit from there house, the tree goes flying off the car. They circle back around and was amazed that the tree was still intact. They work together to pick the tree up, only to find that it had in fact been hit by a truck and shaved in half... but after such an ordeal, they are determined to use the tree. They take it home and hide the shaved half in the corner, but had to tie it to the wall due to the weight shift.

C wanted lights on the tree that night. Nothing was stopping her. C & K drive to three different places to try and find the perfect lights. Everyone's sold out except Michaels. K says, I am picking out the lights - it's the man's job to do the lights. So by now it's 9:00 at night and they come home with the perfect lights, only to find that they were the small strands you use for miniture trees. The shaved tree they had bought was a 9-footer. So back out they go, straight to Kroger. The lesson to this story....just go to Kroger to begin with. They have everything you need and more.

I was laughing so hard. We went on to tell of all our "Griswald" experiences. It was beyond wonderful to see them again. Saying goodbye will be the hardest thing I've had to do.