The Gift
Two sisters. One life-altering Christmas morning.
Little Julie and her sister, Helen, scurried down the stairs Christmas morning to see what was under the tree. They couldn’t believe the number of presents!
As the girls excitedly held and shook each package, their parents joined them in the living room, bathrobes on, coffee cups in hand, ready for the festivities to begin.
“When can we start opening these, Mama?” asked Julie.
Kristie and Kyle looked at each other, laughed and told the girls they could start digging in whenever they wanted.
No one had to tell them twice!
Bows flew everywhere and wrapping paper covered the carpet as Julie and Helen opened up their gifts.
As always, it was nearly over minutes after it had begun.
With only a couple presents remaining, Kyle spoke up.
“Kids, hold on,” he said. “The last gifts are very special. So please take your time opening them so we can all enjoy it.”
The girls nodded and Julie decided to open hers first.
Once she got the wrapping paper off, she saw it was a tiny little wood box. Assuming it was a piece of jewelry, she quickly opened it! To her surprise, all she saw was a note inside.
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She read it out loud.
“It says ‘Dear, Julie. Congratulations! You have been given a special gift by your parents. It is the gift of gab. While you probably don’t know what this means, the gift of gab means you now have the ability to chit-chat about a variety of topics to anyone, anywhere. There will never again be any lulls in conversations because you’ll always have something to say about nearly anything, be it weather, sports, the stock market, food trends or really any other topic. Sure, too much gabbing might turn you into an obnoxious person, especially if you’re seated next to someone on a 6-hour plane ride who has zero desire to engage with you in any capacity, but it could certainly come in handy if you ever join a book club or choose to go into sales. Merry Christmas!’”
Julie put the note down, a bit confused and let down by the “special” gift.
“Honey, you probably don’t appreciate it now,” said Kristie, “but I’m positive you’ll love this down the road for years to come!”
Still bummed out by the gift, Julie could only mutter a quiet “thanks mom, thanks dad” to her parents.
“Okay, Helen, you’re up!” said Kyle.
Helen tore into her package and screamed with excitement.
“A new iPhone!” she exclaimed.
Julie couldn’t believe it.
As Helen powered it on and began to enter in her friends’ contact info, Julie shook her head and looked back down at her lousy gift.
She then turned to her parents who were still sitting on the couch.
“The thing is, iPhones have both positive and negative effects on kids our age,” said Julie. “They’re great in that they encourage community and interaction. Who doesn’t love checking in with friends after school to see if they’ve done their homework yet or what sports practice they might have that night? Perhaps they’ll even send silly pictures to each other. Of course, screen time always needs to be managed and it should never replace the Real Thing, if you know what I mean. Face to face contact is so important and it’s vital that people of all ages get away from their electronics and experience life without devices. Don’t you guys agree? Do you ever feel like you’re struggling with your own addiction to technology? Or perhaps you’ve already found the necessary balance? Gosh, I feel like I could talk a lot about this. I could really talk for hours about anything!”
Kristie and Kyle looked at each other and smiled.
Because little Julie had a gift.
The gift of gab.
