2009 The Year of the Fish

A few years back my growing extended family decided to stop exchanging names for Christmas gifts and instead just play the White Elephant gift game. Boy, we had no idea that it would become some of the funniest family memories we've had together in recent years!

If you aren't familiar with the game, it's usually played with Christmas present "left-overs"--gifts that you don't want. Everyone brings one wrapped with no name on it. After drawing numbers, the person with the lowest number starts by picking a present, then the next person can pick a present or take any present picked before them.

This new tradition has become such a memorable family event that is looked forward to every year. What kind of crazy gifts are there going to be? Which male relative will get the inevitable manicure or perfume set? Who's going to fight over the Chipotle gift card?

One year the game got a little more interesting when a very unique present showed up--a glittery, wide-mouthed, (dare I say tacky), fish vase. No one admitted to bringing it, but it became the highlight of Christmas that year. It was fought over and ended up in all our family Christmas pictures.

The following Christmas, the fish made a surprise return visit. Adding to the laughs of seeing him again, my cousin cleverly inserted the fish into some of her family photos of the year and started a scrapbook of his adventures. In the years that followed, the fish has become the gift "to get" and the scrapbooking has continued with each family that the fish was with that year.

Christmas 2008, we became the lucky owners of the fish (it really wasn't luck, we had to fight some relentless family members for possession!) We thought the fish deserved a break out in the country (aka the Midwest) away from the hustle and bustle of the Washington DC area.

I am definitely no poet and no master with photoshop, but here is the poem I wrote and some of the pictures we added to the scrapbook. Enjoy!

A Flipper’s Tale 2009
(My year in Ohio)

T’was the day after the festive Saville get-together,
How I hoped I was headed somewhere with tropic weatherSo I, all snug in my cardboard box bed
Had visions of sandy beaches dancing in my head

As I peaked out of my box I saw with a flash
A big sign that made me get fish whiplash

It didn’t look like Aruba-for I saw lots of snow
And a big green sign that said, “Welcome to OHIO!"No Caribbean weather, no relaxing in the sand.
Being this far from water, is not what I planned!

Only cornfields, farms and creatures of the bovine kind
And they don’t lock their doors here (are they out of their mind?)It scared me at first, this life in the Midwest,
And missing my Chesapeake peeps I started feeling depressed.

But the family made me feel like one of their own,
And I started to relax, although the territory was unknown.

With Tess I enjoyed attending daily Homeschool,
I had to play lots of dress up (VERY uncool)With Gracie we worked on learning to potty train,
Awkward! “Fish don’t go on potties!” I tried to explain!

(Don’t let the photo scare you, in the potty I wasn’t bap-i-tized,
And I’ve been properly cleaned and thoroughly sanitized)I did hang out with some Barbies, now they were a sight!
(I have to admit, meeting them was quite the highlight!)While it was fun to be with a family with more than one daughter,
This tropical flipper was desperate for some water!

So I snuck in Joel’s suitcase to go on his trip
We have to be headed to water--we’ll be on a huge cruise ship!

For three months we sailed, just him and I,
And it was great to smell the salt water, I cannot deny.

Through the Caribbean we finally did sail,
I got my flippers ready--it was my chance to bail!

But I stopped in my tracks as I heard Joel say,
“Paradise is no fun when your family is away.

Its so much better to be with the ones I love
Than somewhere on a beach with only the sun above.”

So I started to think of this year and the fun that I had.
And the time with my Ohio family wasn’t really that badI learned some new things and saw some new land,
And had a lot of fun and almost forgot about sand

But the lesson I learned (other than that Barbies are sweet!)
Is that spending time with your family, really can’t be beat!

No matter the number of beautiful presents under your tree,
The best gift of all is a wonderful family.So now I’m back to Maryland with Ohio out of sight,
Joel and Stacy send their love,
“We miss you, may your New Year be bright!”