March 28, 2007
Christmas in March
My sister and I don’t have a whole lot in common. Our lives have followed very different paths and our characters reflect that. She has chosen to live in an area where we have a lot of family and finds it completely incomprehensible that I am happy living on an island many thousands of miles from “home.” She needs that support system while I value my independence. She’s had an internet connection since years before I owned my first computer, yet has no cyberfriends or even websites that she visits regularly. She’s perfectly content to turn her computer off at the end of each work day. We both enjoy working on our homes, but she limits her hands-on participation to fabric and paint, while I have been known to tear out leaking showers, install new fixtures and work shoulder-to-shoulder with the crew that built my addition. Our values and morals are parallel, though I’ve strayed off the path more than a few times in my life and I suspect she never has. She’s light and I’m dark. She has always been “the pretty one,” while I’m the one folks turn to in a crisis. The list of our differences is long, but there’s one trait that has dogged us both throughout our lives. We procrastinate. That was what got me into such trecherous financial waters a while back - I kept “meaning to” organize my documents, balance my checkbook and find out exactly how much money I actually had. She’s also been in various difficlties bacause of the same bad habit. We’ve come to accept this in each other, especially at gift-giving time. She still hasn’t got last year’s Christmas gifts from me. I had a valid reason in December, but my refinace went through over a month ago and I still haven’t finished shopping and sent her gifts. She’s one up on me, because her Chtistmas gift box to me arrived today.
We’re both pretty big on humorous gifts and things that make you go “huh?” but I was unprepared for a package that began to talk to me when I lifted it out of the box. It said “Did you have a hard day, darling? Why don’t you sit down and let me rub your feet” in a gravel-y, masculine voice. My new fella didn’t come with a name attached, though I think “Mr. Perfect” was probably what his creator had in mind. He doesn’t mind missing the ballgame and hands over the remote voluntarily. He wants to go shopping with me so he can carry the bags. I think I’ll call him Pat - for patronizing, stereotypical “dream man.” What every woman thinks she wants. Not exactly reality, of course, but I’ll keep him around for amusement, I think.
Pat is surrounded in the photo above by Sis’s other gifts. From left rear they are: a 16-month “Islands” calendar, a Christmas rubber duckie (for my collection,) a kaleidoscope (another collection) and a punched-tin shopping bag/candle holder. She also included some photos of me in years past , apparently ripped out of a scrapbook. I don’t remember ever seeing these particular photos before, so she probably took them herself and never though to share them until now. I think they’re about twenty-five years old. They were obviously taken before time, smoking and the tropical sun turned my face to leather. Not sure why she chose to take them out of her scrapbook and send them to me. I guess I don’t want to think too deeply about whether this represents removing me from her life or sharing something she thought I might enjoy. I think I’ll just accept that it’s the latter. 
Technorati Tags: siblings, family, chiristmas, gag gifts, humor
Posted by skeet @ 8:17 pm • Just stuff, Home & Family
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March 29th, 2007 at 3:02 am, Allan Says:
Good idea to go with the latter…”Pat” for patronizing-hahah! I like it!
March 29th, 2007 at 8:06 am, Karen Says:
Isn’t it amazing how two siblings can be so different? Interesting gifts for your interesting collections! Those pictures of you look like you were a model!
March 29th, 2007 at 12:03 pm, Whim Says:
Ooooo! I’m glad you said something ’cause I heard about this and wanted to tell you about it. There is a book out there called A Perfect Mess. It talks about the fact that those who have messy desks tend to be more intelligent and that they can be a good thing. They have it on Amazon if you want to check it out. I sooo thought “Skeet!” when I heard about this book.
March 29th, 2007 at 2:39 pm, Denise Says:
Ummm I posted a comment early this morning, is your spam filter doing a payback thing?
Weird. But anyway, nice gifts and I think we should always celebrate Christmas with gifts in March. It’s nice.