Tomorrow my big sister Beth turns 60. That seems surreal. It seems like we were just little girls not that long ago playing with toy cars and dolls. I’m not that far behind her, which seems even more surreal — at least until I look in the mirror. Thank goodness for Clairol hair color.

Beth has always been my hero, my defender, my playmate, my confidant and my friend. It’s like she accepted the job description of big sister when she was born and hasn’t resigned the role yet, thank goodness. To her two younger sisters she has always been the protector and provider.

God has many names and attributes, but so does my sister. She is creative and generous, efficient and thorough, big hearted and smart. She is the party planner (ours for her this weekend will be woefully inadequate in comparison) with wonderfully amazing ideas on how to pull off a super fabulous event, whether it is a cookie cutter or paper doll meeting with the theme down to the “tea” and “cookies,” or an anniversary or birthday celebration for family.

She always remembers to order flowers and cake. Her husband took care of that duty for her celebration this weekend, bless him. Truth be told, the rest of us probably couldn’t be trusted to get it right.

But we’ll do our best to spoil her anyhow. She deserves it. She deserves to be pampered on a month-long Disney cruise to some tropical island, but since that isn’t going to happen, we’ll shower her with some good munchies, “surpees” (her word for special surprises) and lots of love.

There can never be enough of that for my big sister.

Since I’m not as creative as she is, except with words, adjectives and accolades are my feeble gifts to her here:

Beth is: creative; strong; generous; good; intelligent; a leader; awesome; a planner; efficient; always up for a celebration; sensitive when it matters most; strong willed (since she was a baby, just ask our parents); organized; caring; spiritual; thoughtful; a blessing; wonderful; crafty (in a good way); excellent cook and baker; spicy or sweet, to suit the occasion; fun; dedicated; protective of those she cares about; classy; smart; clever; conscientious; talented in so many ways and beautiful inside and out.

There just really aren’t sufficient words or big enough font size to share how incredibly wonderful my big sister is…maybe covering the side of that cruise ship might be a start.

I am grateful to have her in my life, and the world has been blessed to have her for 60 years — and hopefully many more!