Christmas recap

At the Klein Christmas Gathering, we have a grab-bag game that we play every year. It's pretty standard, where you can steal from other people or pick a new one from the table, etc. Last Friday, I told my sister-in-law Ilyse as we were saying goodbye that I'd see her on Christmas, and that I'd be #1 in the grab-bag. This was a ridiculous prediction because not only were there going to be 27 other numbers I could pick from the hat, but also because I was #1 two years ago and I think a few years before that too. But that was what I told her, so I also told my mom and a couple others (with a great deal of certainty in my voice, no less).

Still, I was pretty shocked when I pulled out the 1. Ilyse was standing right there when it happened, and she kept trying to figure out how I cheated. Maybe my extreme confidence altered the fabric of history, thereby giving credence to the notion that the mind possesses even more powerful abilities than we realize and that "seers" are just people who have slightly more developed regions of their brains. Or maybe my mom didn't shuffle the pieces of paper enough.

Typically, there are a couple of gifts in the grab bag that are undeniably better than the others. These are the ones that get stolen almost every round and that have people wondering aloud how they fell into the $10-$15 price range. In past years, this has been either a scanner, a mini t.v., or some other pretty cool appliance that my mom used some crazy coupon/rebate combo on to get it into the price range. Other times, it's just something that catches people's fancies, like a cool votive candle holder or a soft blanket. This year, it was...nothing really. Here I was with #1 and no one was afraid to be holding what I would ultimately want. There was a pretty cool tool set, but we have tools already and I didn't want to steal from my Dad unless it was something really cool. In the end, I stole a cute little alarm clock thing that my uncle had previously stolen from my wife. She really liked it, and I felt a little like Jack Bauer as I protected my family. Just a little, don't worry.

So overall, it was cool that I got #1 but would've been cooler if there was an "it" item this year. (Please note that we brought two gifts, and neither were worthy of my #1 either.) It's like I won the NBA lottery a couple of years after Lebron, Carmelo, Wade, and Bosh came out only to find myself choosing between a European project and an American project.

This all got me thinking about numbers though, and I have a lot to say on the subject. I think I'll try to break it into several posts rather than one super-long one, so hang on to your hats and glasses, gentle readers. Happy Boxing Day to all, and to all a good...box, I guess.