My Favorite Christmas Gift

I am so fortunate to have a wonderful, loving family to spend the holidays with each year, and it is this memories we create, rather than the gifts we exchange, that linger long after the decorations have been taken down.  That is not to say we don't put a great deal of thought into one another's gifts, because we have each been the recipient of special and unique treasures over the years, but it is the time we spend together that means the most.

This year, however, I received a gift that left me speechless.  I still don't know how to put into words what it means to me.  I am not a spontaneous crier – sure, when my family or animals or Disney are involved, I can certainly cry my heart out with the best of them – but I don't typically tear up easily.  When I opened this gift and realized what it was and what it meant, I burst into tears.

A little back story:  When I began university up in Canada, my parents and younger brothers moved to the States.  I missed them terribly and visited as often as possible so that I could see baseball games, school plays, and recitals.  In later years, my brothers went to boarding school, and again, I missed them terribly.  So the best way I knew how to let them know I was thinking of them was to write them letters and send them cards.  A lot.  I was sure they didn't really appreciate the effort…for teenage boys, it probably wasn't cool to receive tons of mail from your older sister.  But I sent them mail anyway so that they would know how much I loved them.  Years and years of mail.  And I always wrote the same thing on the envelope:  "Remember who you are…"  My favorite quote from The Lion King.

So on Christmas morning, I opened the present from my brother G and saw that it was a photo book.  When I looked at the cover, this is what I saw:

He made me an entire book filled with photos of the cards and letters I had sent him over the years.  Not only had he appreciated the cards and letters, he had saved all that mail and from all those envelopes I had written on, he made a collage for the cover of the book.

There was a beautiful message from him at the beginning of the book, and toward the end, he wrote about C and included some of C's letters to him as well.  The letters are sweet and funny and somehow magically transport me back to that time in our lives when I read them.

Those of you who know my brother will not be surprised by this gift because you are well aware of how incredibly thoughtful he is.  I am blown away by this gift and the thought that went into it and the years of our lives it represents.  I know there are others who have great relationships with their siblings, but I feel like the luckiest sister in the world to call G my brother.

Happy Tails to you!