The Duke Doll Christmas...

For as long as I can remember, my twin sister, Emily, has always been the one who would wake us up early Christmas morning with the cries of "Santa came!" I could never beat her to it - I'd always vow to stay awake so I could be the one to see the presents first, but I would fall into a deep sleep just to be awoken a few hours later by her cries of "Santa, Santa!!!" Then she would come and get me, and we would rush into the living room to see the magic that was Christmas. The way the lights on the tree would make the wrapped gifts look, and the frantic search to figure out which of the presents were yours!

I can't remember how old I was, but one Christmas we drove all the way to my grandparents house in Ohio. I remember Emily and I were terrified that Santa would not be able to find us (after all, our house was in Georgia, not Ohio). The trip there was horrible. As a typical Georgia December, the temperature was still quite nice with the high temperature of the day reaching 60 or 70. As we inched further north, the temperature began to drop. Mom kept rolling down the window to smoke, so every few minutes we were freezing because of the cold wind blowing in.

After a ridiculously long time in the car, we finally made it to my grandparents house. That's when we realized there were no coats for any of us. Four kids, no coats. There was snow - about 6 inches of it. I don't really know why we didn't bring coats, but somehow that minuscule detail had been overlooked in the packing process the day before. The entire time we were there, we had to use some of our cousins jackets that were way too big - it was pretty comical. (Btw, this isn't really related to the Christmas story, but I think its a fun tidbit to throw in there!)

The days leading up to Christmas were filled with constant questioning by Emily and I about Santa. On Christmas Eve, we finally fell asleep after we had been threatened with the fact that Santa would not come if we did not go to sleep.

A few hours later, I heard Emily's footsteps running up the stairs to the attic room we were sharing. Expecting her familiar cries, I was instead horrified by what she was yelling "Erica, Erica, Erica - Santa came and he brought you your Duke doll!!!" I was horrified - how had she seen what presents I had gotten for Christmas, and why did she feel the need to ruin my surprise? I remember my whole world seem to crumbe in that one instant...

After a bit of crying that lasted much longer than it should, I finally walked down the stairs to see what Santa had left, but knowing the entire time I knew the magic was gone. At the end of the stairs I see what Santa had left - there were four chairs (one for each of us). On each chair there were a few wrapped boxes, and then on top of the boxes one brown paper grocery bag filled with gifts. Sticking out of the bag marked "Erica" was, in fact, my G.I. Joe Duke doll that I had wanted so badly. It appeared that the Santa that visited Ohio was not, in fact, the same Santa from Georgia. The one that wrapped ALL of the presents.


I don't know why I was so upset by that event so early in my life. I still get annoyed to this day when people tell me things that I want to discover on my own. Yesterday, Emily ran a half-marathon. Because she is in Japan, there is a 13 hour gap between us. After getting home from the grocery store this morning, I got online to check Emily's Facebook page to see what she had posted about the half-marathon. As I was waiting for my netbook to boot up, I told my husband my plan. To which he loudly yelled, "Oh yeah, it says that she ran her first half-marathon in 2 hours and 30 minutes." IT WAS THE DUKE DOLL CHRISTMAS ALL OVER AGAIN!!!!