"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one.'" ~ C. S. Lewis

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Sisters

You know that song in White Christmas - the one the sisters sing? The one called "Sisters"

Yeah, I always wanted to write my own lyrics to that song for my sisters. Maybe someday I will.

You have no idea what I'm talking about? Let me see if I can find a clip on YouTube...


There we go.

I grew up (still am growing up) in a very close family. Even now as we are all becoming adults and going our separate ways we're all still pretty close and enjoy getting together. I love it. We were all homeschooled and somehow all that time together didn't alienate us from each other :)

I have 2 younger brothers and 2 younger sisters. There are 15 years between me any my youngest brother and the others are all spread out in between.

I was an only child for 4 1/2 years. When my sister, "Rae", was born and I went to see her in the hospital, the story goes that I looked at her and said, "She's just what I prayed for!"
I know, I know - we are both just so adorable :)

Of course we didn't always get along, but most of the time Rae and I did everything together.
When we were like 3 and 7, our greatest form of entertainment was to take a little tape recorder and make up stories and songs and record ourselves and then play it back and listen to it. I still have some of them. Talk about cheap entertainment. We would even get blank cassette tapes in our stockings at Christmas and it was like the best thing ever.
We played dress up and had tea parties and bickered and made up and shared a room. We played Barbies and My Little Ponies and created outrageous story lines for them. I remember when we used a basket to be an elevator so the Barbies could visit the top bunk. Good times.

After 4 1/2 years of the two of us, Naomi joined our happy little family :)
Why can't I find any of her as a newborn? I know we have them. Oh well.
Here's her first Christmas.

And we all got along pretty well. Maybe I'm looking back with rose-colored glasses, but I remember more times of us having fun together than of us fighting (though I do remember fighting. We're human and sisters after all).


Another Christmas - seriously - all of us in pink footy pajamas? How cute is that?!

Our two brothers came later and I am in no way saying we didn't get along or that they weren't important. I'm just focusing on "sisterhood" right now :)

Even now, Rae, Naomi and I are close. Rae got married almost 3 years ago and she moved away. Still within visiting distance, but not just around the corner. We talk and when we get together we have a great time, but we're just not as close as we used to be. I kind of miss that. I guess it's all part of the growing process. And, as much as we love each other, we have a lot of differing interests. We learn from each other, but we don't share the same things and it just creates a little bit of distance.

When I was in college, Naomi and I started e-mailing each other the MOST ridiculous things. We just kept replying back and forth and would basically free-write whatever happened to come into our heads at the moment we sat down to e-mail. This is what really began our friendship that has blossomed outside of "your my sister so I have to love you and spend time with you". We created so many inside jokes it was ridiculous.

We are also both big readers and writers. We are constantly bouncing ideas, story lines, first drafts, etc. off each other. If one of us is stuck we blather to the other one until we work out the kinks.
We're even co-writing a series of dystopian novellas together (maybe they could be YA, but I think they're even short for that). Don't know for sure if they'll go anywhere, but we have been having a lot of fun collaborating on them.

Besides a lot of shared interests, we also still live in the same house. We see each other almost every day, which makes it easier to stay close. We both cringe at the thought that someday (probably soon) one of us will be moving away. I don't know if we'll be able to stay sane without each other :P

What about you? Do you have a sister? Are you close to her or not so much?

I feel so blessed to have such a good relationship with both of my sisters. And I'm glad for the "S" day to give me a chance to throw all of this out there :)

15 comments:

Sarah Ahiers said...

well obvs i have a twin sister. But i also have a younger sister. She's ten years younger and out of all of my siblings she's the hardest one for all of use to get along with.
Ah well, she's still much younger than the rest of us. We suspect aging might ever her out a bit

Karen Jones Gowen said...

I have three sisters, no brothers. Through the years we've stayed fairly close, depending on locale and where we are in life. Some days I REALLY miss them!

Ashlie Hawkins said...

Aw, what a sweet post! It's so great that you're still so close. I have a sister who is 3 years younger than I am and a half sister (she's my dad and my step-mom's) who is 19 years younger than I am. I also have a brother who is 2 years younger and a half brother (mom and stepdad) who is 13 years younger. My sister and I are capable of getting along, mostly because we don't see each other very often. We're pretty much polar opposites though, so there's lots of disagreements as well. I always warn people before they meet my sister, "We're completely different." But no one ever quite believes me until they meet her. She's pregnant and is having a little girl in a few weeks, so I'm hoping that new chapter brings us closer!

Talli Roland said...

How lucky you are to have such a close family! And what cute kids you all were.

I have a brother but we live mils apart and we're oh-so-different.

Summer Frey said...

I have a brother who's 2 years older than I, and we're very close.

Last year, my parents adopted a brother/sister duo, who are respectively 20 and 22 years younger than me. I don't really see them that often, considering that I'm married and have my own life, but I'm still getting used to the idea that they're there.

Hannah said...

I have 3 sisters and one brother. We're all fairly close. I have the most in common with my brother, who writes like me...he's 12 years my junior.

I just lead a very different life from what the rest of my family does. Oh well. They're still my family and I loves them...most of the time. :)

Hannah said...

And yes, White Christmas is my most favorite Christmas movie...so I know "Sisters"

Sisters Sisters
There were never such devoted sisters.

Erin {pughs' news} said...

I know exactly what you're talking about... my sister and I belt out all the lyrics along with The Haynes Sisters every year at Christmas time. We especially like the bit where Bing and Danny Kaye lipsync the whole thing. Festively fantastic!

My sister (who's 2 1/2 years younger than me) and I are very close. We live about 40 minutes away from each other and we talk a lot. I wish we saw each other more often though. With 4 little boys between us (aged 2-5), things are a bit crazy. I'd be lost without her though. She is absolutely marvellous and a fabulous friend to me.

This was a lovely post Rebecca. I liked learning more about your family. And the photos are awesome!

sarahjayne smythe said...

Lovely post. I have a brother, no sisters. And I've always wondered whtat it would be like to have one. :)

Shannon O'Donnell said...

I have two sisters. One I am very close to, and the other has chosen to keep us at a distance. We haven't even seen her in over two years. Before that, we hadn't spoken in over 5 years. I am so grateful for the sister relationship I do have - she's one of my best friends. :-)

JennM said...

We're even co-writing a series of dystopian novellas together

I LOVE dystopian novels! Seriously. Favourite. Genre. Ever.

Would it be too much, to ask, someday, please, for an excerpt?

:) :) :)

Mia Hayson said...

FAB POST!!

*shakes head* No, I only have two brothers. This sound bad but I grew up as a sort of tomboy which was cool for a while.

Now, before anyone tells me it's NOT THE SAME (and I'm sure it's probably not) I do have one very close BFF who feels like a sister. We see each other everyday and do the whole free-write email thing even though she's five minutes walk away from me most of the day.

We've only properly known each other 5 years, but ask anyone around and they'll tell you we're soulmates. I guess it must be pretty annoying for other people because it's gotten to the point that I can finish her sentences and vice versa. We're either semi-psychic or just know each other inside out ;~)

Plus we totally duet on that song only ALL of the time. She likes to do the deeper parts of our duets (but don't tell her I told you that) :P

Kelly said...

I have one older sister (almost 5 yr difference). Your post reminds me of all the good times I have with my sister. I was "her baby" for several years after I was born (she even named me) ,but we grew apart in adolescents. We didn't become friends till after I went to college, and now that I've graduated and we are living together again we have gotten really close.

I love this post and the pictures are adorable!

Unknown said...

OMG, I love these pics!! I have four sisters -- the drama is always present but I love every one of them to pieces!!

Rebecca T. said...

It was so much fun getting to learn more about all of you! I'll have to throw these kinds of questions out more often :)

@Falen: Aging can do that :) At least sometimes.

@KarenG: It is so hard when you don't leave near each other, isn't it?

@ashlie: Congrats to your sister and to you :) I hope it does help to bring you closer.

@Talli: I feel very blessed. Yeah, my brother and I are oh-so-different too.

@Summer: Wow, that would take some getting used to. I have a cousin who's a year older than I am and his parents recently adopted a brother/sister duo as well with about the same age gap. It has made all of their lives interesting :)

@Palindrome: Yup, that's what family's for to love... most of the time ;)

@Erin: I love the lipsync part too and almost stuck that video up instead :D It's great you're so close to your sister :)

@sarahjayne: thanks. sisters can be wonderful and frustrating all at the same time. Kind of like brothers :) - oh wait, I think that's just family :)

@Shannon: It's great that you're close to one of them. It's always sad when someone chooses to keep a distance.

@Jenn: that is a distinct possibility.... It would be nice to get an "outsiders" perspective. Only family members have read it so far. We have to do a rewrite on the first one, though.

Mia: Why would it sound bad that you grew up as a tomboy? It's great you were able to spend time with your brothers growing up. And BFFs can definitely stand in as surrogate sisters.

@Kelly: Glad to bring up some memories :)

@Nicole: Sisters=drama! Glad you liked the pics!