Our usual schedule is family get together Christmas Eve. I always enjoy the company of my family. My cousins are awesome and I always have a great time with them.
It was interesting this year. For our annual cousins gift exchange, we were told to make our gifts creative. I thought long and hard for this (about 3 days, on and off). I researched online for some possible ideas. One idea was to wrap the gift in very annoying, and tiresome layers of duct tape, paper, plastic, and cement. I thought, one, it would take some time for to put that together, and two, I would be soo annoyed. So, while it was some what of an interesting idea.. I decided to have that as a back up if all else fails and I can’t think of anything else.
So I consulted my dad. I told him about our plans for the exchange and the little twist to our gift exchange (A prize was up for the grabs). He suggested that I have my person sing a song to my mom.
Not a bad idea I thought.
I’ve had this box that fit a mp3 player and I knew it would be a great starter to my gift. So after I ordered the real gift online, I moved onto the “faux”. I wanted to give direction to my person.. but I knew it had to be unique.. I found a foiled wrapped chocolate in the shape of coal. I knew I had to use it. I also found some shredded paper to add a little flair to the box. Poof poof snip snip, bottom part was down. Now onto the directions.. I thought long and hard on this part. Through my search for ideas, I cam across some riddles or rhymes that some people added to their secret santa gifts. I figured I would do the same. It took me a long time to get started. I had some introductions, and none of them stuck out to be worth reading. Then.. for some odd reason the “Twas the Night Before Christmas Poem” came to my mind. I knew this was it. I semi- studied the pattern of the poem.. and went from there.
This was the final draft of the poem:
Sing- A- Song
When the final day came, I was kind of nervous.. I thought maybe he wouldn’t do the task and that all of this would be lame and a waste of time. I really didn’t think what I did was good enough. Before this family affair, I showed my dad the poem. He didn’t like it. So I thought, ‘this is gonna suck’. I put a good amount of effort on it.. and I didn’t want to make it overly complicated… so I left it at that. Whatever. So when it finally came down to the moment… everyone quietly listened as my cousin read the poem aloud.
1st stanza: … Chuckles.
2nd stanza: … Louder chuckles and a “that’s funny”.
3rd stanza: … “Good one, Ness.”
As he was reading the poem, he was laughing (at the poem and because he had to change the pronunciation of the words in order for it to “rhyme”.) Then he looked at me, and then at my mom. I smiled. My family was laughing… a sound I love. It’s a sound that’s very reassuring, brings me happiness… and gives me a sense of calm.
For this secret santa… I received:
I can't wait for this!!
I was surprised that I got both… my secret santa’s awesome!
All of this doesn’t matter… Just being in the presence of my family is truly enough for me.
My family’s awesome and I love them all!
#heartsign&happyface
