The DragonFish protects us.

Many of you already know that my brother Matt is living in South Korea, teaching English to students for the year. Maybe he'll stay longer, but I don't know. Every year my siblings exchange Kris Kringle gifts, and as there are four guys and two girls (Lucy and Meg) it's always fun to see who had to buy a gift for who. For example, I seem to get Lucy quite a bit and buying presents for her is always a challenge. Not because she's hard to buy for, but because I think that things like screwdrivers, electrical tape and/or window cleaner as presents are totally sweet. No need for elaborate things; celebrate the simple things of life.

Enough already, Lucy is great but the point was going to be that Matt is still in Korea and he got me for KK's. Which in a fairly haphazzard way leads me to the picture in this post. I get this box which has mostly Korean text on it to the puzzle of this year's KK was pretty simple. Well, unless some of my other siblings are learning Korean but I'm not yet aware of it. Inside the box was a package wrapped in Jeju (assume?) newspapers and such which contained an odly shaped object that appeared to be a stuffed pair of socks with rocks in it. The socks had Bart Simpson from the TV show The Simpsons, which was hilarious in its own right, and I thought that there was going to be some sweet rock or other geologic artifact contained within the footwear.

As an aside, Matt gets fairly inventive with his gifts. They're always incredibly thoughtful and unique, and they're usually pretty revealing as to the character of the gift recipient. For example, at our wedding he gave us a case of Busch Light that contained a series of antique books entitled Great Men and Famous Women that containes stories about historical characters. Spot on for Meg and I.

Getting back on track, as I'm a civil engineer and obsessed with earthly things, getting a rock from Korea is something I would get pretty excited about. But no! The socks contained a dragonfish who, according to Korean tradition, protects your home. As one can see in the picture, his eyes are always open looking out for you. Super creative and one of the best presents I've gotten in quite a long time. Great job and thank you Matt!