Our immediate family is plagued by geographic and time constraints when it comes to celebrating holidays. Most of my family is now in the Dallas area, and the rest is spread across West Texas. So getting everyone together for Christmas *near* Christmas is tough.

Case in point - this year, we didn't celebrate Christmas with my brother and sister, who are local, until a few weeks ago. In March. Nearly three months after Christmas.

But that's not the story I want to tell you.

I collect playing cards, and I have my world-traveling uncle who helps me quite a bit. He's been to Australia, Germany, Finland, Russia, Spain, Japan, etc., etc., etc., while speaking at various conferences or holding positions at various Universities. Everywhere he's been, he's picked up a local or regional or unique set of playing cards and sent them to me. So I've got quite a collection (and I'm still working on a way of displaying them, so if anyone has any suggestions, I'm open to them).

But that's not the story I want to tell, either.

This year, my sister, who has been doing bunch of traveling for her job, decided that she would help add to my playing card collection. She started in August when she was in New Orleans. She picked up a deck of New Orleans logo playing cards, and had to leave suddenly because Hurricane Katrina was baring down on the area. A few weeks later, she went to Houston and picked up a set of cards there. Again, she had to leave early because of the evacuation for Hurricane Rita.

So I only got two decks of cards, because she didn't want to bring any other hurricanes to other parts of the country last year. Not quite the "Gift of the Magi," but I understand where she was coming from...