friday flashback - the christmas double cross

Another year has passed since we lost Papa Joyce, as unbelievable as that may seem to me, but she's never far from my mind. I think of her whenever I'm in my laundry room, which isn't as odd as it may sound.




This picture hangs above the dryer in our laundry room. Once upon a time it used to hang with two of it's sisters at Papa Joyce's house. I guess truly they were triplets since it was three copies of the same print hanging on the wall. The story goes, she had been shopping and seen them displayed like that in a store. She liked the look so much she bought a set of three for herself and displayed them on the wall in her home. At least until the teasing she took for having three copies of the same print hanging in a row became to much. Then two of them found a new home under Papa Joyce's bed.

Now we are a family that likes to tease and poke fun. And a funny story can live on indefinitely or at least until someone does something stupider funnier than you. It was at one family gathering before Christmas that the story of the triplet prints came up again. I can't remember who it was at the time, but someone suggested Uncle GMac "steal" two of the prints out from under Papa Joyce's bed. The idea being, we would wrap them up and give them to her for Christmas. Oh how we chuckled at the thought of her unwrapping these gifts Christmas day and thinking now she has 5 copies of the same print.

I should pause here to mention Uncle GMac may be the "worst" of us all for practical jokes. Every year the big stocking is filled with his "gifts". Contributions that have, in the past, included a roll of toilet paper with about 4 squares left, a dead plant, an ancient box of salt less than an eighth full, and he's not above gifting you items he's found lying around your own house either. In hindsight, we were taking a big risk bringing him on as a partner in our Christmas gift practical joke. Of course we didn't realize that at the time.

Christmas day rolls around and we are practically giddy with what will transpire at some point in the gift opening process. I'm sure there was a lot of knowing eye contact and elbow nudging going on. And then in a move we didn't predict we were handed two identically wrapped packages. One for Mike and I, one for his brother. We unwrapped them to find twin pictures that just so happened to have a matching sibling hanging on the wall at Papa Joyce's house. We sat there with our mouths hanging agape while Papa Joyce chuckled on the couch and Uncle GMac sat smiling smugly in the corner, having just pulled off a successful Christmas doublecross.