My most memborable Christmas gift!

Christmas is a magical time of year.  As a young child, the Christmas I remember best was when I was 7 years old.  I remember being so excited as I would watch each present after it had been wrapped and placed under the tree. Coming from my family of 8 meant many many gifts under the tree. My mom would spend all year shopping and buying and preparing for Christmas. I would spend what seemed like hours sitting under the tree reading each tag hoping it would be for me.  I didn't pay too much attention to the other gifts, but the gifts that had MY name on a tag I would spend hours shaking the box and examining the gift as best as I could in wonder and anticipation of what special gift awaited my greedy little hands. 


About one week before Christmas, my sister Karen came home from shopping with my mom and told me that she had found the perfect gift for me. You must understand  that Karen is my big sister and she is 2 years older than I am.  I have always looked up to her.  She was 9 and seemed to have much more wisdom and knowledge than I did.  She was like the Marsha Brady and I was the Jan.  She was who I looked to for fashion and know how to life's demanding questions that a 7 year old girl had. In other words, she had the "it" factor. To this day, Karen is a shopper and an incredible gift giver.  I think it is safe to say she is a legend in our family when it comes to gift giving.


Anticipation filled my heart and the suspense began!  Not long after she had reported on her find she brought the beautifully wrapped gift and placed it under the tree.  It was the most beautiful box I had ever seen. The gift was in a very long, very skinny box.  The type of box you just don't see.  I don't believe I had ever in all of my 7 years experience seen such a box!  The box was about 3 feet long and 12 inches wide.  It was wrapped in shinny wrapping paper and tied with a beautiful bow.  I was mesmerized!!  I remember sitting under the colorful lights smelling the wonderful aroma of pine and examining and trying to guess what in the world was in the box!!  I would make guesses and each time Karen would smile and tell me that there was no way I would ever guess what was in the box!!  She was right!  I never did guess.


After days of suspense, finally Christmas Eve arrived.  We had a wonderful meal that my mom prepared and carried on with our Christmas traditions but all I could really think about was WHAT WAS IN THAT LONG SKINNY BOX!  It was finally time to go to bed and wait through what seemed a very long night until we could go into the living room to see what Santa had left us and open gifts.  I don't remember even wondering about what Santa would bring me that year.


Christmas morning actually did arrived even though I didn't think it would.  We lined up from youngest to oldest and I must have been pretty happy at that moment that I would have been one of the younger children.  Each of us bolted into the room to partake of the goods.  I remember that the first gift I went to that morning was the beautifully shinny wrapped long skinny box that I had held in my arms for what seemed like days in suspense.  My moment had arrived.  I quickly tore open the paper and opened the box and much to my wondering eyes did appear...a blue snake!!  It was the most unique stuffed "animal" I had ever seen.


It has now been over 40 years since this momentous event and I don't believe there has been one Christmas that has passed that this story hasn't put a smile on my face.  I have told this story to my children for years.  I have never run into another blue snake in my life.  Until...last summer when Megan and I were shopping at Pier 39 in San Francisco we went into Rain Forest Cafe for a look around.  What...could it be...A BLUE SNAKE!!  We just had to take a picture...just a couple of weeks before my 50th birthday finally I found another blue snake. 


I learned a lot that Christmas and I have always held that story close to my heart.  It wasn't the blue snake that held my heart, it was the love of my big sister and her thoughtful act of finding what she thought would be the perfect gift for me.  Merry Christmas to all of you, and may you feel the love that I felt that special Christmas.  I hope each of you will have your own version of a BLUE SNAKE this year :).

August 2011 - THE BLUE SNAKE