Most of the holidays of my youth, like carefully balancing the placement of Nativity figurine’s in the manger, have often by design been a matter of “two-by-two”…Though I may not have mentioned it previously, I have only a single sibling, a fraternal twin brother. While our lives as adults have been very different (day and night, really), many of our childhood holiday and gift-receiving memories are similar. Actually, these recollections are often exactly the same.
As children, especially during the holiday season, it was regular practice on the part of our parents, grandparents, and Santa, to give us each the exact same gifts, the only variation being in color or maybe shape, for example, if we both were given Star Wars action figures, he would open a Han Solo and I, a Chewbacca. (This could of course open the way for the serious discussion of Chewie actually being bigger than Han, and therefor a better gift, given that Chewbacca was taller.)
In this way, holidays were “two-by-two” events.
To insure that someone would not feel cheated by having been gifted with a larger or better present than the other, all gift opening would need to be carefully orchestrated so that we would each be opening the same box, bag or stocking simultaneously. This would also allow each of us to have a moment of surprise. By the time we were eight years old, my brother and I both had a sense of what was happening. Then my parents got really clever and would mix up the orde rin which the same gifts were resented. Then the "game" changed. I remember look to see what my brother was opening thereby creating the opportunity to predict what I would later unwrap.
*sigh*... the joys of twin-hood!
Embrassez votre été invincible!
2 comments:
I like your new photo header. Funny, I don't remember a Ninja Turtle being in the Nativity scene, but I think it adds a nice touch. :)
thanks for stopping by and leaving the positive vibes...! nothing says "holidays" like an "action figure nativity" ;)
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