Um, thanks?

So last night, one of my housemates handed me a couple of packages. One was from Amazon (Got the book, ma, I'll read it over break.), the other was this rather innocuous looking flat rate box sent from home.

 

Harmless, right? Let's take a look inside:

 

Things are a little stranger now. It was filled with a gummy hand (with real crunchy bones inside!), a couple of mustaches, an emergency blanket, lots and lots of napkins and no note. To say the least, I was a little confused. I texted my sister and the conversation went a little like this:

Me: Any explanation for this box I just got?

Sister: Ummmmmmmmm... merry christmas?

Me: Theme gifts?

Sister: Yep.

Me: Who is the hand from?

Sister: Uncle 3's theme.

Me: The napkins? And the Christmas napkins?

Sister: Lol step dad was out of packing peanuts.

Me: And popcorn? I have to say those were the most confusing part. Did you do the mustaches?

Sister: I don't know about the popcorn and yep.

My mom's side of the family has this super fun tradition were we all try to spend the least on the strangest or most entertaining gifts for the whole family. I remember blinking red noses one year, pencils with "1998 theem gift" on them, and some interesting band-aids, among others things. This exchange happens whenever most of us can get together. My mom and two uncles are all in the same general vicinity, so it's usually them now and I think they had Christmas sometime in mid-January, and naturally, the box just got here at the end of March. I had kind of guessed that's what it was, and wasn't the least surprised by most of the contents, but the napkins threw me off a bit, those aren't typical theme gift things. My family is awesome. My housemate who brought me the box also witnessed me opening it and is probably convinced that side of my family is on the top ten list of "Strangest Families in the World who Don't Participate in Illegal Activities."

Also, this is the closest thing I will ever get to one of those mirror self portraits with a big camera type shot. I call it "The artist as an angry mustachioed man." I even wore my man glasses for the occasion. Actually, I wear my man glasses a lot, so that's not really a big surprise. 

I have several posts that are sitting half-way written that will hopefully be posted soon. Maybe even sometime today seeing as I have been meaning to go hang out at the library to get a couple of papers written and now it's three and that still hasn't happened.