Christmas (about two weeks late)

I doesn't SEEM like I've been away from my blog too long, but when I look at my page and see Nov. 23 as my last post...time sure has flown by. I've had quite the busy December, though. I work retail, managing a men's clothing store, so December means Christmas shoppers, which means long hours, very few days off, and even fewer instances where I had the energy and will power to sit in front of my computer to write (aka do more work). Unfortunately, it also meant that I was INCREDIBLY lazy in getting my trades out. There's nothing like receiving your end of the trade package in the mail when you haven't even put your package together. If you are expecting something from me, I WILL get it out.

Anyway, on to the good part.

My parents were visiting for Christmas (another reason for the infrequent posts) to celebrate the holiday and help watch our daughter after my wife had thyroid surgery (yet another). Since the beginning of December, my dad had been building up the anticipation of how much I was going to love my gift and he couldn't wait until I opened it. The first package I opened was a large box containing hundreds of Chicago Cubs cards and about 15 or so random packs from the junk wax era. Nothing too special there, apart from an '88 Donruss Glavine rookie and a '91 Fleer Roger Clemens insert. (I always loved the Pro Vision series for some reason) There were also a few smaller pesents which contained things like a Joe Carter '84 Donruss rookie and the '83 Topps Sandberg. That particular card for me, as a 13-year-old Cubs fan, was the holy grail of card collecting. That one card I always wanted, but could never afford, or at least convince my parents to let me spend that much money on a card. I now own 2.

The big one came at the end. It was the one marked OPEN LAST!!! I knew I had something spectacular waiting for me, but I did not quite expect what I found. There were 9 original Ernie Bank Cards, including a 1955 Bowman graded and a 1955 Topps. What really made it special was that a majority of these, including the '55 Topps came from his personal collection. It really meant a lot that he was willing to give those up to me. Now not only do I have a much older answer the the "What is the oldest card in your collection?" question, but it is QUITE the card to have.