At one of our family gatherings many Christmases ago now, my father received a rather ugly tie during a gift exchange. The tie was meant to be a joke and was given by a family friend, an illustrator by the name of Craig who was expecting my father to be terribly disappointed with the present. But my father smelled a practical joke, so instead he pretended to like the tie and said he'd wear it to work with pride. His "act" was taken to be sincere and Craig had a hard time hiding his dashed dream of pulling off a practical joke on my father. The following year a tie box appeared and Craig was certain he was about to get the tie back, but there was no tie in the box. Another year passed but the tie did not make an appearance this time either. The following year we were once again gathered together for Christmas and presents were being passed around. The tie was long forgotten, not even a distant memory at this point. Wrapping paper was falling left and right when a shiny red box was placed in Craig's lap. My father told me to keep my camera aimed at Craig. Craig opened the top of the box and pushed aside the tissue, then burst into the most incredulous laugh (the moment caught forever on film!) for there in the box was that ugly tie in all its ugly glory! The next year...
Thank you Allison, Babs, Connie, Denise and Wendy!