Boxing Nun

This entry has nothing whatsoever to do with Iraq and everything to do with my nutty, extended Mexican Catholic family. It’s also long over due. After the Christmas holidays I received a special holiday gift box from my extended family. Inside was a boxing nun doll. It has great sentimental value as it dates back more than a few years as the premier white elephant gift in our extended family’s Christmas celebration. My sister and I originally bought the nun and brought it to San Diego where my relatives gather on Christmas Day for a giant meal and gift exchange. We introduced the concept of a white elephant gift exchange add to the merriment. Maybe it’s because more than a few generations of my family went to Catholic school that the boxing nun doll was such a great hit. Every Christmas, without fail, she would turn up in the white elephant gift exchange. Every year, everyone hoped to take her home for the coming year.

This year, with me in Iraq, my relatives got the idea to find the nun and send her to Iraq to visit and otherwise keep me company. After a long email exchange, my cousin Tito, who lives with his own family in Guadalajara, Mexico, found the nun (he was the last person to end up with her after last year’s gift exchange) and said he would arrange for her to get to San Diego where my aunt (or, Tia, in Spanish) Marta would send her to me.

My cousin, Tito, took some amusing photos of the nun with her Mexican passport and shot card and sent them via email to my family members as a way of announcing her pending trip. When she arrived in San Diego, my Tia Marta boxed her up and sent her to me. I couldn’t have been more pleased to see her after all these years! Now, she keeps me company at my desk. My co-workers, who at first were a little freaked out, are warming to her charm. I only hope she doesn’t offend any of the Iraqis here who work in the Embassy!