Gifts for the Twins

Yesterday, I did a little bit of Christmas shopping while I was out on the town.

There was such an array of exciting gifts for young boys that I got totally caught up in shopping. Christmas music was sounding over the store speakers, the cashiers were busy taking shoppers by the lines, and everywhere I looked there was something stunning that I could put under the tree for my little brothers — my twin brothers who died this year when they were 13 years old, and my soon-to-be little brother-in-law who will be 10 next year.

Coming of Age

At 12 years old, it was getting to be challenging for me to buy for the twins. What do you buy for a teenager whose parents give him everything he could possible want, at least from a material perspective?

Last year, I thought ‘Now is the time! If you want to get them anything cute before they morph into headstrong teenagers, this is your year.’

Jerseys for the Twins

Because I call the Twin Cities my home, I decided to get them official jerseys from the Minnesota Twins baseball team.

The twins weren’t huge into baseball, but they loved every sport, and the jerseys I found had “Twins” scrawled in a script font right across the front. ‘Wouldn’t that be cute?’ I thought. The twins could wear the jerseys at the same time, shouting their identity out to the world. After all, they deeply loved and cared for one another, and they weren’t afraid to show it.

Alas, last December I was cash-strapped and out of time, and couldn’t afford to spend $50 on each jersey on top of all the other gifts I was buying. So it had to wait for this Christmas.

Now my situation is much improved, but the twins are gone. They won’t ever wear a Twins jersey from my home state’s baseball team…

Toys for Tots

So, yesterday, in a flurry of sadness and an overwhelming impulse toward consumption, I bought each of the twins a Christmas gift. I shopped a little bit young, and found things that they would enjoy, though it would be more of a one-time activity or a kick start for a hobby still in the development stages.

With three little boys in mind, including my boyfriend’s little brother, I bought a box labeled “How to Draw Cartoons,” a kit to build your own catapult with a book on the history of the medieval war tactic inside, and a set of backyard rockets complete with a rocket launcher.

I bought these gifts with the goal of donating two of them to Toys for Tots this year.

Two curious kids will stumble on these gifts as they choose presents to put under the tree that their parents could scarcely afford, and I may even put a note on the gifts or inside them, telling these young ones to cherish life, cherish their families and cherish their friends. Because I cannot stand the idea that my brothers and their parents may have died in vain.