Christmas Surprise

I will never forget Christmas morning my senior year of high school. My family and I were all gathered around our Christmas tree, and taking turns exploring our stockings and opening presents. The pile of presents had finally disappeared. As we all sat and talked about the great gifts we got my Dad said, “Wait, I think there is a couple more behind the tree…”

My Dad got up and poked around behind the tree and finally came out carrying 3 small gift bags, and handed one to each of us. Then he grabbed the video camera. In our family whenever our parents bust out any sort of camera when we are opening presents typically it means it is a big present and they want to capture our reactions. So we all knew this was going to be a good gift, we just didn’t know how good!

My parents told us we all had to open them at the same time. We all sat anxiously looking at each other thinking “should we start now?” I started ripping open the tissue paper and my brother and sister followed. What did we find inside? A plastic Hawaiian lei… We all looked at each other with a perplexed look on our faces, and turned to my parents, who had huge grins on their faces. I asked them jokingly, “Are we going to Hawaii?” All my mom and dad had to do was smile a little bigger and nod. My sister started jumping up and down in excitement. My brother sat silent in disbelief. And I have never been able to live down my reaction, remember the video camera? I jumped up and down and shouted, “I’m going to be tan for prom!”

I’m not convinced this is how I want to end it, I feel like I need more of a conclusion…What do you think? Do I need more of a conclusion?

The Cabin

When you look at this picture I bet you see an old run down cabin. Nothing special. It doesn’t look like a place you would want to spend your summer vacations.

When I look at this picture I see family memories. I see my cousins and I taking a break from swimming and boating to each lunch on the deck.

I see family walks to the big Rock.

I see the boat breaking down in the middle of the lake, but being ok with it because that meant I get to spend more time with my cool older cousins.

I see an Island we get to swim to and explore.

I see my Grandma ringing the dinner bell at the house and my mom telling me I have to get out of the water.

I see my Dad and Uncles setting off huge fireworks over the lake on the 4^th of July.

I see buckets full of fresh picked blackberries from the main road, waiting to be made into homemade blackberry cobbler.

I see my cousins and I asking every adult we can find to pull us behind the boat until we find someone willing.

I see a big bonfire with 9 small plastic chairs around it for each of my cousins.

I see decks of cards waiting to be used for pinochle, cribbage, and war.

I see my future, with our expanding family making new memories.

This was my attempt at a poem, I tried a repeated line....I am not familiar with this genre, so I am open to all suggestions!