Saturday, December 26, 2009

Day 815 - Present Prejudice


December is such a busy and stressful month because of all the holidays. The month started off with National Pie Day which I did not enjoy since I was in such a crusty mood. December 7th was Pearl Harbor Day or as I call it 'The I-Am-Not-Japanese-But-Rather-Chinese Day.' On December 17th, we celebrated National Maple Tree Syrup Day, but it conflicted with a prior social commitment so that was a sticky situation. And December 25th was of course Christmas.

Although we have only experienced a handful of Christmases with the twins, I am beginning to realize that there is something unique about it. Despite the urging of our friends and families to make sure we allow our kids to develop their own personalities and quirks, this advice seems to get thrown out the window because there are two key words that come into play at Christmas when you have twins: sharing and matching.

When the kids receive one gigantic gift, this means they are going to have to share it. Examples of these gifts would be something like ball pits, pretend gardening sets, or a live donkey. Sharing is obviously something that our kids will need to master, but children do not learn to share until the age of seven or eight. So this means Lisa and I will have to put up with five or six years of the kids fighting over balls, hoes, and asses.

As for matching gifts, I don't mean the exact same toy for each kid. I mean something along the lines of Emma getting a Minnie Mouse doll and Andrew getting a Mickey Mouse doll. Or Emma getting a Lego dollhouse set and Andrew getting a Lego Star Wars set. Or Emma getting boxing gloves and Andrew getting a first aid kit.

There was one matching gift the kids received that struck me a little odd. Cousin Jamie gave the kids pretend playsets. Andrew got a doctor's playset with a personalized name tag that says Doctor Andrew; Emma got a McDonald's playset with a personalized name tag that says, "Would you like fries with that?" I don't know if this is suppose to imply their future career, but at least Andrew will know where to go if he ever wants a burger and Emma will know where to go if she ever wants to unclog her arteries.

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