I had not heard of archeology before. I, of course, immediately began to read the book and a new wonderful world opened up for me. The book explained what archeology was, and then reviewed the main explorations and discoveries and archeologists, such as the discoveries in Ur and the ziggaurats, the Egyptian pyramids, the discovery of Kin Tut's tomb by Howard Carter, and the Maya Pyramids. I became very interested in Egyptian culture and also in Maya culture. These interests continue until this day. I took courses in high school and college, where I majored in sociology (the study of societies), and I also became interested in anthropology and the work of Margaret Mead.
Another wonder Christmas gift was a mosaic kit that my parents gave me. It was an icon mosaic of the Virgin and Child. I knew little about mosaics at that point (around 12 0r 13 years) and really enjoyed completing the project. Little did I know that nearly 45 years later I would take a mosaic class at the Southwest School of Art and Craft in San Antonio, and discover how much I loved making mosaics. I have not had much time or space to work on my mosaics, but it seems to be the medium that I love to work with most of all.
When I was quite young, I had a Ginny doll. They were very popular when I was in elementary school. One of my siblings gave me a roller skating outfit for my Ginny doll. The skates really worked and it had a little blue vest and white skirt. I was very thrilled with that gift.
I loved dolls and was always thrilled when Santa Claus left me a doll. I mentioned the Ginny doll, an eighth-inch tall doll with a young girl's face which was very popular when I was in elementary school. Barbie dolls had not yet been developed when I was young. My sister had a Barbie doll when she was about 10; I was 13 and considered too old for dolls. However, truth to tell, I would sneak and play with my sister's Barbie doll when she was not around! Other memorable dolls I had were a bride doll, about 18 inches tall, and a ballerina doll, about the same size. I was enthralled by dancing, and the ballerina doll had pointe shoes, a pink tutu, and dark hair in a bun. I loved playing with her and pretending I was that doll and dancing and dancing in ballets.
And a couple of years ago, my daughter Sabrina gave me a rather unique gift. I owe a square foot of land in Ireland! She bought it for me and make a scrapbook about it. It is in County Tipperary and has directions to the land. One branch of my relatives comes from that county, so that was a special gift. It was special, too, because it was one of the few gifts from my daughter that she seemed to have really put thought into and knew that I would love such an unique gift. Previous gifts from my daughter were a foot bath, and two outfits that were the exact same color. Those were a little strange.
Gifts that I received that I did not care so much about were the usual winter gifts that children in New York receive--winter hats, mittens or gloves, scarves, boots, etc. We also always received very practical and gifts few children would be excited about--underwear, vests, socks, etc. Would YOU be excited with those kinds of gifts? I wasn't.
The thing that really upset me about Christmas presents was that after we had stopped believing in Santa Claus, my sister would extort money from me over Christmas gifts. Here is how she did it. Joanne would scour the house and always find the hiding places where my parents had stashed away our Christmas gifts, so she knew what each of us would be receiving from our parents as well as what she was giving to us. Our parents never wrapped our presents until Christmas Eve, so it was easy to tell what we were getting. I loved being surprised on Christmas morning, so Joanne would demand part of our allowance NOT to tell us what we were getting. That's extortion! I don't know if my brother cared so much about being surprised, but I did NOT want to know what my gifts were going to be. Maybe I was afraid that I would be disappointed if I found out what the presents were. Maybe I just wanted to be surprised on Christmas morning. Whatever the reason, I always paid up and didn't tell my parents that Joanne had found the presents. She would have been in BIG trouble!
Now I am at the point in my life where I enjoy giving gifts to those I love rather than receiving gifts, especially gift bought just to give me something.
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