An Escalation of Gifts to Hold Back Sibling Rivalry

By Betsy Mikel in Miscellaneous on Dec 25, 2010 6:45PM

The Christmas memories that are told and retold in my family always revolve around miscommunication and sibling rivalry.

One year, my middle-school aged sister wanted a Walkman for Christmas. She was pretty pissed I got it instead, because my parents put the wrong name on the gift tag. Even though I was too young to really appreciate it, I was so excited to have my very own Walkman that my parents couldn’t take it away from me. So the next day both of us received one more present, a Walkman for her and something else for me. When I was 10, I casually mentioned that saw this cool fancy 3D gold-plated Clue game in a catalogue. I was surprised as anyone when my dad got it for me for Christmas. My sister was once again pretty pissed, because none of her presents that year came close in price or class.

Yet even though I unknowingly ruined a Christmas or two for my sister, she was a good sport through it all. And by good sport, I mean she might have pulled my hair and sat on my face a little bit less around the holidays.