Friends, have I told you about Ada’s Great-Aunt Judy? Well, sit down. You’re going to love this.

When Ada was about two, she started telling stories about Great-Aunt Judy. Since she doesn’t have a great-aunt (or relative) named Judy, we were wildly amused by these little stories.

At first, the stories were pretty simple and focused mostly on Judy’s pink camper, which she lives and travels the world in, according to Ada. At age four, her stories have become more detailed and sometimes include Judy’s husband, who likes to eat sandwiches in his underwear while watching baseball, I’m told.

My favorite stories are the ones about her wardrobe. Her favorite dress is gold and has feathers around the collar. Ada calls it Judy’s “driving dress” because she wears it when she’s driving her camper to a new place. She likes to wear big, elaborate hats to the grocery store so her husband can find her easily. Can’t you just picture her?

Awhile back, I was telling my friend, Chelsea, about Great-Aunt Judy and we came up with an amazing plan. Chelsea works for National Geographic and travels all over the world so she has become Ada’s real-life Judy. Now when she travels to a new place, she drops a post card in the mail with tales of exciting cities, new people and exotic foods and then she signs it “Love, Great-Aunt Judy.”

Last week Ada received a package from Great-Aunt Judy from India! She wrote to tell us that she rode an elephant, saw the Taj Mahal and met women who made these fabulous pillows from scraps of wedding dresses. Ada was beside herself! We found India on the map together and decided we’re going to hang a map in Ada’s room with pins in all of the places Great-Aunt Judy visits.

So much magic. I’m grateful for such a dear friend and a girl with such a big imagination.

Did you have an imaginary friend when you were a kid?