Here is my favorite picture from the Cole family Christmas. Here is my younger sister who is sort of the family diva, and who, much like her older brother and your bloghost, does not have much of an internal monologue or poker face. I believer her fiancee once referred to her as “un-filtered.” At any rate, here is Anne’s reaction to receiving this gag gift from my other sister:
My other sister Devon had worn that to an “Ugly Christmas Sweater” party and decided to give it to Anne as a joke. You can see her to the right of the picture laughing.
kid bitzer
no, but what do you *really* think?
mr. whipple
I
Usually, but that is really hideous.
SiubhanDuinne
That is assuredly one UH-GLEEE sweater. I’m sure there are probably some uglier out there but not many.
Your sisters look cool. In fact I imagine your entire Cole family celebration was a lot of fun.
Stay safe when you travel back home. I don’t like what I’m hearing about the weather and the roads in your part of the world.
dr. bloor
Jesus Ferguson himself couldn’t keep a straight face if he opened a gift box with that thing in it. Woof.
Merry Christmas, by the way.
Mike E
That reminds me of that game where you get the chance to “steal” a prized gift, only to have it taken from you by the next person in line and so on. Gag gifts included potted meat, playing cards, a brick of store bought fruitcake, li’l stretch gloves etc. I wound up with the cards, and somebody found a sawbuck in the gloves. Fun.
Ty Lookwell
This year I agonized over my mom’s X-Mas present. AGONIZED. I even called her a few days just before X-Mas, so desperate to know if there was anything at all she wanted, anything at all that she would really like (my parents are in a tax bracket that I will never, ever, ever reach; anything they’d like they easily get themselves).
I bought my present for her, and, like the present for my dad, I had planned on putting her real present inside one of those empty joke boxes that I had ordered a while ago from The Onion. This is the one I got for my mom, in which I put her real present.
When my mom removed the bow and wrapping paper only to find this joke box, she didn’t take it as (or recognize it as) a joke; she was so thankful and authentic and warm and grateful for it – she knew how much I had struggled to find her something she’d really like, and when she opened the box she laughed and laughed. When I think about the way she responded to discovering this horrible, crap joke “gift” from me (or so she thought), I can’t think of another moment when I’m so happy that she’s my Mom, so warm, considerate, and kind.
Folderol and Ephemera
Wait . . . that’s your family, John? They’re all blonde! I could’ve sworn you were this guy.
Adopted?
valdivia
ok guys hope your day was fantastic and sorry to go OT–but I just had a Teabagger encounter of the first kind on the NYC subway A line. I still cannot believe it here in Manhattan? This woman was sitting next to me, around 50, reading The 5000 Year Leap. so after she saw staring at the book she started gushing about it and how it predicted all the evil things that were happening to our country today. And because I did not want to throttle her on a christmas day I asked how she came to read the book and she said Glenn Beck told her to. I recommended that she look a little more into the guy who wrote the book and the John Birch society but I fear this may not act as the deterrent I hoped. Sigh, I wish I could have had a slew of arguments to debunk all the bs but I was speechless. If any of you have encountered a real life taebagger before please tell me how to cope. So weird to feel like Manhattan was safe from this stuff, guess not.
Sorry for the rant and the off topic, thought you all would understand.
gbear
A long time ago I went to an office christmas party at the home of one of the owners of the firm. He had a bulldog. One of the joke gifts that someone brought was a bowling ball, which the bulldog thought was the absolute best toy ever!! My boss was lucky that he had any gypboard left on the bottom of his walls by the time the party ended and the ball went home with someone. We all LOLed.
RedKitten
That’s hysterical — you can tell she is sort of trying to smile, just in case the gift isn’t a joke.
I like your family, John. :)
Gwangung
Yeah, it’s UGLY….and I’d probably wear it proudly until it fell apart from overuse…..
geg6
geg6 +12 and we have not even touched the proseco yet. I’m gonna be a mess tomorrow. John, your sister is beautiful and the sweater is horrible. Merry merry, all.
Anne Laurie
It’s not truly xmas-ugly unless it’s got a tiny battery pack to light up the bulbs and/or play a few chords of something horribly festive.
Also, I had assumed you were the oldest kid, John, but I guess you’re a middle sib? Odd.
John Cole
@Anne Laurie: I am the oldest. Me, Devon, Seth, and then Anne.
asiangrrlMN
Um. Er. Yeah. Ugly, it is. Your sisters, however, are pretty.
Cole, you have a brother? I knew you had two sisters, but you have a brother?
RedKitten
Is it just me, or does it seem really rare for a family to have a boy, then girl, then boy, then girl? Most families with more than two kids tend to always be lopsided in terms of gender — it’s unusual to see it so…organized.
And yes, as others have mentioned, your sisters are absolutely lovely girls. Question: were you one of those protective older brothers, trying to physically intimidate anybody they wanted to date?
John Cole
@RedKitten: Wasn’t around when they were dating age- I was in the Army then college.
Anne Laurie
@John Cole: Yah, you write like an eldest. Don’t know how to explain that — something about the combination of cynicism and relentless didacticism, maybe.
Also, 85% of the Annes, Anns, Annies, Ann Maries and Annie Lauries I know are first-borns, so your sister remains an outlier. Of course she’s a diva, she’s the baby.
gbear
Your sister’s story told in LOLcat. Same expression.
RedKitten
@John Cole: Probably lucky for them, then. :)
gbear
@Anne Laurie:
My sister Anne is a last born by a long margin. I’m 16 years older than her, and she is definitely the diva. And also very cool.
Irrelevant,YetPoignant
@Anne Laurie:
Really? (thinks about it for a sec) Let’s see, I’ve known two Annes, one Anna, and an Agnes and an Agnieszka (which are, I believe, from the same root, right?). Also an Anuradha (which is unrelated, linguistically). Besides one of the Annes and the Agnes (whose sibling status I have no idea about at all), all the rest were, indeed, first-borns.
Huh.
Cat Lady
Cat Gentleman put on a FEAST today – three main dishes and nine sides for 15 hungry souls. Three days of shopping, chopping, prepping and cooking, including a goose, with Yorkshire puddings for the Brits in the family, and variously prepared vegetables for the vegetarians. The Irishman in attendance recited Alexander Pope’s poem An Essay on Man from memory, while the cats played with ribbons. The Irishman is to the left of even me, and the smartest and kindest person anyone would ever have the pleasure to meet. Everything was perfect. Everyone left happy and stuffed to the gills and will be home before the bad weather sets in again. I loved this day, I love my family, and I love this blog. Merry Christmas to all of you odd and wondrous BJ’ers, and bless us every one.
No more Christmas music though.
kthxbai.
HRA
Your sister Devon reminds me of my daughter, Jackie who gave her eldest sister a red hat brooch today to prepare her for the future. Anne and Devon are beautiful.
Survived phase 1 of the holiday. Three dogs (rottweiler, golden and tiny yorkie) at the hostess house and a pit bull from Rochester to add to the festivities. Xena the rottweiler loves me and keeps on licking me to prove it. I love her, too. The human count was 24.
valdivia
@gbear:
FTW. poor kittie and poor Devon.
Genine
Most of the time… yeah.
mandarama
John, now I see why you’re so cool–you have a bunch of funny siblings. Nothing like sibs to make you learn to take the piss when you need to. I thank God / FSM / Roman lares et penates of choice for mine every day.
@Ty Lookwell:
Aww…your mom is awesome. And you are more so, for that box. I only wish I’d seen that before Christmas; it would have been perfect for my gadget-addicted hubby!