Dani Bear

This year I received one of my most treasured gifts to date. Anyone who knows Danielle knows that she lived in hoodies and pajama pants at her house . I have a lot of her hoodies and a pair of her pajama pants that I wear to bed almost every night. They are really comfy, now I know why she "lived" in them:) Danielle's mom Tracy had 2 bears made out of her favorite pj pants . I can still picture her standing in her kitchen wearing these pants with her Twins hoodie on drinking ice water from her pink Las Vegas cup leaning against the kitchen sink. Kinda weird, but I can picture these clothes on her and I would make fun of the fact that she had the skinniest legs and the biggest boobs :)..one of Danielle's many amazing trademarks along with her "deep" laugh :)..if you ever heard it you know what I'm talking about. Andrea ( Danielle's sister in law) my good friend received the other one. Tracy gave these to us last night and of course we all were a blubbering mess after that..thanks a lot Tracy ..just kidding we LOVE them as much as we love you Bill and Andy.

I also really wanted something that I could keep on our tree every year to keep her in our hearts especially around Christmas time . Andrea found a beautiful piece of jewelry from Danielle's jewelry box of a butterfly which is the meaning of life, which is quite fitting now that we expect new life this summer. Where there is death there is life...you know like a butterflies life's stages. Tracy also gave us an ornament of a snowman with Danielle's name on it that had been on their tree.

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about her and I'm sure that will be like that forever and I'm good with that

"I was once worn by someone so dear,

Who through loving memory will always be here.

So when you hug me up close, remember,

Danielle loved me, too "

We put the teddy bear in our glass cabinet with all of our other precious keepsakes.

I'll take it out every once in awhile to let Ethan give "her" a hug along with myself of course.

Love you D.