Every Family Does This ... Right?

These two precious little girls graduated high school yesterday:

My, how time flies! I took these photos somewhere around 13 years ago. The girls look even more beautiful now. Quite accomplished in the musical and academic arts, they impress me all to pieces. They sang the national anthem at the graduation ceremonies (along with another classmate) and wow! was it ever beautiful. I totally should have skipped the mascara yesterday, if you know what I'm sayin'. My brother and sister must be very proud of their daughters.

After the graduation in the burning hot sun (me dressed head to toe in black, complete with a black hat...oh, yeah, I'm smart as a bow-tie) we headed to the graduation party at my brother's house for an implosion of family and former-family.

All families have their quirks, and at the party, Kathy reports that we displayed ours amply. I don't really think about the things we do until she remarks on them later, because I think everybody does what we do. Right. Well, one of our favorite family activities is the exchange of Good Deal stories. We stand around looking all classy-like with our bottles of water and plastic wineglasses, saying things like:

"This top? $85 normally. But I didn't pay that - I picked it up for $29.75 at Macy's one-day sale. Isn't it fabulous?"

"Wow, that's great. Did you see Stephanie's dress? Ann Taylor, I kid you not, marked all the way down to $20!"

"Omigod, $20?!? And it's so LOVELY!"

You would think the clothes looked even better when we know they were part of a Good Deal. Come to think of it, they probably do.

We're hunters admiring each other's trophies; to us there is nothing wrong with it. But others - the outsiders - can understandably be a little taken aback when we do it during a Christmas gift exchange.

"Oh, you shouldn't have! This is way too generous!"

"Don't worry for even a second, I got a great deal on it! I think the sale is still running through the 3^rd."

Really. And hearing about the bargain actually makes us happy for the gift-giver, because what could be better than getting a good deal? Well, okay, lots of dark chocolate and a romantic getaway with your beloved and a nice sword and a huge supply of Golden Acrylic paint, of course, but I mean other than that. A deal.

(Which brings up one of the big Dealmeister gift-giving conundrums. If you've been reading a while, then you know that giving good and plentiful gifts is important to me. But I always get stuck on this...if I have a budget of $100 and I find a $100 item at half price, normally I would spend the left over $50 to get even more gifts for the person. That makes sense to me. But what if I am buying gifts for two people, spending $100 each, and find such a deal for only one of them? And they will open gifts together? Do I still spend $100 cash on both or go for a $100 value on gifts? What if they want to return something and see the receipt? Will the deal recipient feel cheated? I'm hyperventilating at the thought. Feel free to leave a comment with your advice.)

Okay, enough about Freakish Family Behavior. Here are the cards I made for the girls:

These took me a long time to make because I was really stumbling for ideas. In the end, I was quite happy with how they turned out. But then I wrote inside them.

This calls for another aside. You see, the other weird thing we do in our family is show off a cool thing we made, then point out the mistakes. When Kathy first met my brother, years ago, he showed her an entertainment center that he had built and finished with a nice rich stain. Then he pointed out a flaw where he had to butt two boards together, because he hadn't cut one long enough. Of course, to see that you would have to be standing in just the right light and already know it was there. But he made sure we knew where it was right away. (Kathy said it was then that she knew I wasn't adopted; this was genetic family for sure.)

So, my flaw with the cards is that I handwrote my notes. Trust me, cursive is not my friend. With my arm problems lately, the handwritten result creates sort of a "nine-year-old-with-a-learning-disability" effect. In true family form, I pointed this out to my niece, writing a P.S. to her remarking that this was proof that I should always print inside my cards. Because, you know, otherwise she might think I didn't know that it sucked.

And besides, she's family. This is part of our bond. God save her when she goes off to college where people don't have the proper respect for amazing good deals and spotlights on flaws. Come to think of it, she might return with a thing or two to teach her elders.

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