Giving and Receiving

Aunt Bhu
It was my father's birthday on the 4th. We bought our first grill in honor of the event and rummaged through the crawl space for the duffel bag of fireworks that were left here by my brother years ago. My sister and I spent a few hours that morning decorating the white paper with which we wrapped his gifts. I think he was happy with our book and DVD choices, and he loved the art work. After dinner we called my brother and his wife in Sydney, where it was the morning of the next day (and a winter day at that) and had a video call with them. My father hadn't seen Kenneth and Naomi (even on skype) since my sister's wedding here, 15 months ago, so that was really great for him. I sure wish they could have been here in person. But they are busy growing a baby and a business.

It's my sister's birthday next week and my friend Helen's is tomorrow. Lots of birthdays in July. I think I scored on their gifts.
The giving is easy. It's the receiving that can be hard.

The morning after my sister arrived, I was running around the kitchen getting coffee and breakfast made, packing towels for Jesse's swim class, checking out movie times to meet our dad later for a movie - in multi-tasking hyper mode - when my sister interrupted me.

"I have a gift for you," she said, casually handing me a box.

"I'm going to kill you.." I started to say (our usual response to each other's gifts).

And then I noticed that the box had a picture of a camera and I realized what she had done.

She has given me her Nikon D70, the really expensive camera that I was hoping I had enough put aside to buy. I was completely freaked out. I quickly walked outside to the back deck and paced and yelled at her and tried to convince her how wrong she was to be so foolhardy - that she had future babies to think of and her own businesses to start (are you reading this Bhu? I say it again!). None of it worked. In the end, I had to receive this unbelievably generous gift. I am still overwhelmed.

I have taken 181 pictures in the last 24 hours. The camera is amazing. My ability is lacking. So many bells and whistles - at least a hundred buttons. But I will learn! Gillen is getting to use my old camera and has gotten some great shots of hummingbirds, early in the mornings in his garden. I'll post lots of pictures tomorrow. Now, my brain needs some rest so as to process all of this, and in order to learn what buttons to push and when.

P.S. I guess it's redundant now to say how cool my sister is; pretty obvious, eh?