So, how do you comfort a five year old?

Tuesday night we had dinner with Maddie's two best girl friends in the whole world, Jalyn and Logan. The reason for the dinner was twofold - hey, it's Christmas, AND dear little Logan (and her family) are moving to South Carolina the Monday after Christmas. So Greg and I have known for about two months, but we weren't sure how to tell Maddie. Well, we decided to tell her on the way to dinner. We tried to play it up a lot and explain how excited Logan was to live at the beach, but it didn't really fly. Maddie's first concerns were how Logan's toys were going to feel about the move, and when did she plan to come back to visit her house. When Greg and I explained that the toys (and stuff) would go with her and that the house would not, I think she felt a little bit of comfort. It took about five more minutes of thinking, then the backseat of the car became very quiet and the tears began to roll. Poor Mom - because when she began to cry, I did too. It's hard for a five year old to grasp this kind of thing.

Dinner went very well and I think that the girls sorta forgot about the moving thing and just enjoyed playing together. The girls swapped presents and Jalyn and Maddie gave everyone a Snapfish flipbook of three years worth of photos. Logan gave the girls a picture frame with a picture of the three of them from her spend the party a month ago and a collage frame with pictures from the past three years too! And Logan gave each of the girls a shell from her new home. (On a side note, Maddie has a wooden nativity set in her room because she loves to play with my mom's collection of them when we go to Nini's house. We would frequently catch her carrying Jesus and she would always say "Nini, I'm being very careful," which meant "I'm carrying your Jesus around." Anyway, Maddie's nativity set is now complete, because the manger that Jesus is lying in is the shell from Logan's new home.) Anyway, that night would not have been complete without a few more tears over our sweet friend Logan. And as a mom watching a five year old contemplate this big life change, I think I shed the most. Maddie has an absolutely huge heart and I love to watch it grow.

Here are the three amigos (Logan, Jalyn in the middle, and Maddie)!! We will miss Logan, but look forward to her visits!!