The Lost Lumberjack – Eli’s 5th Birthday Bash on Martha Stewart

When it comes to being punctual in sharing my work, I might just be the worst. Literally. I could win an award for how long things take me to actually share! But I’ve come to terms with the mantra Better Late Than Never. And in truth, it applies to all kinds of wonderful things in life. So I’m sticking with it.

And so, in keeping with my endlessly late tradition of sharing sweet Eli’s Parties around Halloween, I’m finally posting the blog of images that Martha Stewart shared last year while we were in Italy–of his birthday two years ago this month. Yea. I know. But I was awestruck that this boy was being featured again + utterly grateful + entirely humbled. Can we just say those are my excuses?

Once again, and during the most appropriately haunted week of the year, another Eli Armani Party: The Lost Lumberjack.

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The Lost Lumberjack – Eli’s 5th Birthday Bash on Martha Stewart Elis Lost Lumberjack Party 001

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Fifteen.

Today we weren’t supposed to be here. Home. Not today anyway.

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Fifteen Years ago, we said I Do and somehow, it’s flown by. But in the same breath, I’ll state that it’s been chuck FULL of adventure after adventure. The Good, Bad, Better, and Worse. When I was younger, I used to love to read Love Stories in magazines, or the secrets from life-long couples’ relationships entitled: Secrets to a Happy Marriage after Sixty Years. Or something to that affect… Each one of them seemed to have the same tone and somehow, they all shared the same back-story. No matter the magazine, book, newspaper, interview, or movie I’d seen of stories like this, all of them shared a common denominator: Pain. Every love story spoke to memory after memory of the lowest of lows the walked through during their marriage and how they got through it. While there were also, always, so many highs to their life-long love, it was how they made it through the toughest of times, the darkest of valleys, and how they endured their walks through sorrow and disappointment that held them together.

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In only fifteen short years, this is our story too. And already. Today, we were supposed to be celebrating in another place. On a trip I’d planned for us for just the occasion. But we had to cancel. Life. It happens. Yet, I wouldn’t change this life with you for anything. Because in fifteen years, but in what really feels like fifteen weeks maybe, we have had immense JOY too! Here and elsewhere. Both pain and joy have followed us, but we’ve learned from the pain and danced in the joy.

I spend so much time each night writing to our son, Eli, and reflecting on our day together. But I so often do the same with you. It’s hard to even verbalize all the things I love, adore, and admire about you, but…  Maybe fifteen things will suffice…

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