My emergently-abled older brother Justin loves celebrations. He loves weddings and holidays - particularly Halloween and Christmas and their corresponding catalogs. My dad says “Justin’s a wrapping paper guy.” He’s also a tree lights guy. If you called him up to talk Christmas, he would ask you if you prefer colored lights or white lights on your tree. Most of all, he likes Christmas trees. And from his love of Christmas trees, he likes tree branch clippers and chainsaws. He lives to supervise my dad chainsaw the bottom of the Christmas tree to fit properly into the tree stand. He wouldn’t ask you if you use a real tree or not. If you use a fake tree, I would suggest you keep that yourself. I once revealed that I was considering going without a tree in my apartment. I’ll just say that Justin’s “Come on!”s are very compelling.
Once, when Justin was 9 years old, he got up in the middle of the night and untied our ten foot Christmas tree from the post. He still recounts the story and how he yelled out, “tiiiiimbeerrrrrr!” He got in a lot of trouble. I’m still impressed.
Justin would also ask you if you’re aware of the various Christmas catalogs out there. He recently asked me if I was aware of a new catalog that he was due to receive in the mail that was the same Christmas catalog that our Grandma Mary liked. He knows that I perk up whenever I hear about anything about our Grandma Mary who died before we were born. Justin is always connecting people to one another. He’s also always bringing relatives and ancestors into the conversation. Over the years, I’ve overheard him reciting the family litany to himself while making red and green paper chains. “Does your friend Ashley know our cousin Emily?” “Do you remember when Grandpa John was out on the boat with us and there was a big thunderstorm?” “I sure do miss our Grandpa Doug.” “Can we make Grandma Martha’s fried chicken recipe next time you’re here?”
Justin is a Christmas guy. He loves his family. He loves the rituals, carols, food, faith and mystery. His joyous presence is my favorite present.