Jenny is not the only artist in her family. Her nephew also has artistic talent.

This past Christmas was my first year participating in her family’s Secret Santa gift exchange. They call it Kris Kringle Manito/Manita depending on whether the person whose name you get is a boy or a girl. In today’s world, you can never be too careful so you may have to ask around first.

The amazing thing about this Secret Santa was that Jenny and I both received gifts from her nephews. Her youngest nephew was the one who drew her name while her older/still very young nephew, age 4, got me. He was kind enough to get me some candy and make me a Christmas card.

Even though the spelling isn’t perfect (whose is?) and Jenny appears to be holding her leg in the picture on the bottom outside of our crooked red home as I deal with my four legs, it’s a brilliant masterpiece. Quite frankly, it’s not much better than anything I could draw either.

It was actually quite meaningful for him to draw me a picture, too. When I met him about one year ago, he wasn’t too interested in me aside from cowering.

Of course, he is quite shy as many young kids are. When you’ve never seen such a pale monstrosity as I in your home, it’s reasonable to want to cover your eyes and cry.

Next Christmas I hope to have my own lovely card to send him. Since he no longer runs away whenever I enter the screen on Skype and has actually asked for me when I’m not around, I’d say we’ve made pretty good progress. It all started with this card which has become the olive branch of our relationship.