FIRST, BUT I CHEATED

“Yes!” I cried as I looked at the text on my phone. “I'm the first again this year!” I smiled as I looked over at my husband Steven, who was sitting next to me on the couch.

“First? What?” he asked as he muted the television and moved a pillow behind his head.

“I was my sister's first Christmas card.” I leaned back and smiled.

“Okay, well congratulations.” Steven didn't sound very impressed.

“Hey, do you know how early you have to send the cards out to be first nowadays?”

Steven just shook his head. “Nope, not a clue.”

“Before Thanksgiving!” I cried. “It's ridiculous! I used to be able to mail them the day after Thanksgiving and I'd be first, no problem. Now I have to start a week before!” I looked over at him and shook my head. “I couldn't even find cards this year. No one had them out yet. It took me three stops just to find some!”

“So why do you do it?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “Because it's tradition.”

“Tradition?”

I put my feet up on the coffee table. “Okay,” I admitted. “It's my tradition.” I took the pillow that was behind me and tossed it further down the couch. “I remember the first time it happened. My sister called and said I was her first card.” I smiled at the memory. “I don't know what it was, but somehow I felt I had won.” I looked over at him. “I was first for a few years but then one year she said someone had beaten me.” I frowned. “That year was a very disappointing card year for me.”

I picked up my phone and smiled as I looked at my messages again. I held it up for Steven to see... “Any mail?” Was my text to her. Then I scrolled down to her answer: “She said her husband just brought it in, I'm their first again!”

Then I clicked on to my other sister: “Hi – I received your card today (along with 2 others) but I'm sure you were the first. Thanks!”

I looked at Steven. “She doesn't get her mail everyday so I'm definitely saying I'm her first card too.” I settled back into the couch content with my win.

Steven pointed to the stack of cards on the coffee table. “So whose are those?”

“Oh, they're everybody else's Christmas cards.” The stack was next to my address book waiting to be done.

“But didn't you just tell me you need to be the first card out?”

“I just finished telling you how early everybody else is sending them out! If I tried to be everyone's first card I'd have to start writing them out the day after Halloween!”

“So you only did your two sisters?”

“Hey,” I shrugged my shoulders. “They were the only ones that ever noticed I was the first.”

“So you cheated?”

“No! What are you talking about?” I was sitting up now, feeling offended. “That's not cheating!”

Steven looked doubtful as he reached for the remote and turned the sound back on the television. “If you say so.”

I sat back and thought about it for a moment. “Okay, I cheated.” I admitted. “But this was the first year I ever did that! I swear.”

Steven just patted me on the knee. “Whatever you have to tell yourself is fine with me.”