I am trying to appreciate the gift that I got from Great-Aunt Eunice, but it's so hard to.

Great-Aunt Eunice sent me one of the ugliest sweaters I have ever seen in my life.  Brown as mud, with a white dog on the front.  Looks like something a seven-year-old kid would wear, not me, a growing thirteen-year-old.  I honestly don't know what she was thinking.

I know Great-Aunt Eunice is old and all (after all, she is in her nineties), but I swear she's getting forgetful.  I am no longer a little boy!  I'm in middle school, for God's sake!!

After I groused about the sweater for what seems like the thousandth time, Dad sighed and hit me over the head with the newspaper (those Sunday papers are heavy, and boy, do they ever hurt!!).  "Son", Dad said sharply, "Be grateful for that sweater.  Your Great Aunt Eunice spent many hours making that by hand.  It is very well made and you can bet that it was made here in the good old U.S.A.; it isn't one of those cheap imported things!  And you can also bet that it was made with lots of love!"

Dad went on to tell me about the poor, starving people in Africa or India.  I rolled my eyes as I sniped, "Well, there are poor people here in America who are poor and starving!  How 'bout helping THEM??"

Dad walked away in a huff into the kitchen where he talked to Mom.  I am sure he was telling her what a ungrateful little brat I was being.  I didn't care.  I did not like the sweater and I didn't see any point in wearing it, especially to school.  Heck, I'd probably be laughed right out of the building if my classmates saw the hideous abomination that my Great Aunt had made for me!

I went into my room and looked at the sweater.  I could see exactly what Dad meant by being well-made.  I then thought about the poor starving people in third world countries (as well as those here at home here in America).  My eyes suddenly filled with tears; I felt guilty and I knew I had to apologize to Dad for acting like such an idiot. 

I then took a piece of paper and wrote a thank you letter to my Great Aunt in Louiisiana and told her how much I enjoyed her gift (okay, so I lied a little, but compared to just a little while ago, I felt a little better about what she had sent to me for Christmas).