Ale woke me up at 7 am to give me a note that stated she didn't want to wake me up, so she'd be downstairs playing....and to please look for her once I was awake so she could give me my presents
I went down at about 7:30...Remember that conversation about not BUYING presents? like the little mice in Cinderella, she went about looking for discarded stuff she could recycle. She got my niece to give her an old bead (BIG BEAD) from a broken bracelet and she turned it into a necklace!...she also used bits of construction paper to make me 3 different cards! ...oh, and she has taken to going around saying I'm her "favorite parent"!

She also told me she had wanted to bring me breakfast in bed, but that we were out of cereal and she doesn't know how to use the stove! :P

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on a funny/ kind of sad note, my sister's ex stroke again and left HIS daughter stranded downtown, where she takes an advanced math course on Saturdays, so Niece and Nephew went to get her and she had lunch at OUR house...how can he expose her to what could be a potentially hostile environment?? -- perhaps he was counting on us being civilized enough to 1)let the siblings go get her and 2)be nice to her and ask her to lunch!...we've seen this girl (she's 15) probably 4 times in her entire life. I think she's nice; sis is rather indifferent towards her (let's not forget this poor kid is "living proof" that her ex was cheating on her!- plus, the kid is very introverted, and sis is extroverted...), but, in the spirit of it all not being the girl's fault, sis tries to be nice and make her feel welcome (both times she's been to our house, anyway!)...this guy is really something!