On the First Day of Christmas, My Sister Gave to me…

Despite the fact that we spent our childhoods trying as best we could to make each other’s lives miserable, my sister Jean is my best friend. She’s the next one up from me agewise, and was almost 8 when I was born. (For those of you doing the math at home, that will make her 40 in 6 months. He he he.)
Ours was not normal sibling fighting. It was a 15-year battle. We did dishes together after dinner every night, and at one point there was a rule that we weren’t allowed to speak, look at one another, breathe on one another, or cross to each other’s side of the double sink. We were vicious. Before she got married, we got in a fight so big that she threatened to kick me out of her wedding and I suggested she try the personal ads to find someone else to wear the dress. Not our best moment. But some time before she had her first son, we started to realize the other was tolerable. By the time she had her second son, she made me his godmother. By now, we’ve reached a state of complete codependence, if that word can have a positive connotation. Despite an intense fear of big cities, she surprised me by showing up for my 30th birthday last year. We email daily, and talk nearly as often.
And every so often she does something so incredibly sweet that I almost can’t believe it. Today was one of those days. Jean made me an advent gift. For the non-Catholics out there, advent is the four weeks leading up to Christmas. Jean gave me a big Christmas gift bag, filled with 24 individually wrapped presents—one to open each day in December. But wait—there’s more. Each gift was wrapped in Winnie the Pooh wrapping paper, my very favorite. And once I unwrap the presents, there’s a little post-it note stuck to each one with a note from her. She did this for me a few years ago, and I still have the Post-Its saved, they made me that happy.
I opened the first gift today, and it was a copy of her Kathy Mattea Good News CD (her very favorite Christmas CD), and a note that said “I hope you derive as much joy from this as I do!” And while I undoubtedly will, it can’t even compare with the joy I derive from her.