“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” William Arthur Ward

A sunny soul with a great sense of humor, my cousin Angie Laws is the mother of twin girls and the wife of a good guy named Joe. We spent a lot of Thanksgivings together over the years, and some of the most hilarious photos from my younger years are with my sister, and my Langdon cousins– which includes Angie and her siblings Joe, Aimee and Andrea. There were often matching plaid nightgowns for the girls and always there was a lot of bad hair and Grandpa’s wood burning stove in the background of said photo. Our roots are forever tangled together.

As the oldest of the Langdon grandchildren, I was the first to do everything– graduate from high school, college, get married, and have kids of my own. When my boys were very small, and Angie was a single gal who lived in the area, she sometimes came to babysit. My little guys absolutely LOVED Angie. How could they not? We always spent some time laughing with Angie about our silly goofballs and what they got themselves into under her watch. As long as I have known her, she has been the owner of a beautiful, contagious smile. She’s just an incredibly likable and also amusing person. She laughs easily and her smile is broad!

Although its’s been way too long since I have seen Angie, I am nevertheless grateful to call her family. Tom and I have always agreed that her positivity, terrific smile, and great sense of humor are hard to resist!

As we are nearly upon Thanksgiving, and this holiday evokes a lot of Langdon memories for me, I remember a quote I read recently which said, “Gratitude is the memory of the heart.” I suppose that feels very accurate as I consider my pretty terrific cousin Angie. Angie, I know without a doubt that your girls are incredibly blessed to call you mom. If the world was full of sparkly women as full of love as you are, it would be a much more phenomenal place to inhabit! HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU AND YOUR ENTIRE CLAN!! Hugs!!