Monday, November 24, 2008

Dance Monkey! Dance!

Christmas is the time we wrack our brains pretending we all have the love-language of Gifts.

I have become rather non-materialistic over the last few years. I don't want more stuff. I have enough stuff. I have too much stuff! If there is anything I want I can probably afford to buy it myself. If I can't afford it, then neither can anyone in my family.

I suggested to my parents that maybe this year we could do something different. "Let's have a gift-free Christmas." They talked with my brother and sister. They agreed it was a good idea.

Then they decided we should do something different this year instead of gifts. We're going to share our gifts (or talents) with each other. My brother is going to do something with the guitar. I'm not sure what my sister will do, but my parents do have some suggestions for her.

My talents tend to be of a different kind. I'm a good programmer, but I wouldn't be able to come up with a cool program in a month's time.

Some people tell me they enjoy my (blog) writing. That's fine, but I don't see me writing a blog entry for my family. (I don't think any of them even read this blog.)

I play drums, but drums are more of a back-up instrument, and my drums are (staying) in Ottawa. There are no drums for me in Halifax.

I play guitar. Brother Jack is playing guitar for his talent. If I do that too, there's always going to be that comparison thing. He's a better guitarist than I am. Furthermore, I play acoustic guitar, and mine is staying in Ottawa. Jack has 2 electric guitars.

I'm good at getting people to switch over to Apple computers. But I've already demonstrated that to the family. They all have Macs now.

I'm the fastest ATM user I know. It's hard to demonstrate that in a talent show.

My mother suggested I do a sketch and frame it. But, really, I just doodle on styrofoam and call it "art". I do find it funny that my mom suggested that. Growing up, my brother was the good artist. Not me. When I first showed them my coffee cup art, they said "What? We thought Jack was the artist in the family!"

What do you suggest?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

i think doing a coffee cup sketch of your family and framing it would be a memorable idea.

I'm not suggesting you frame the cup (it would be rather awkward) rather, framing a photo of the cup. How can you say that won't be memorable as well as demonstrating your gift, er, talent, um,... whatever you call it.

You used to teach back in the North, why don't you write and present a short Family Memories.