Every year around Christmas time, my sister and I go through our family photo albums. We have holiday pictures from every stage of our life, with Colby and I smiling side by side draped in strands of Christmas lights or have drinking hot chocolate in matching coats at Silver Dollar City. There is one photo album that is full of pictures of Colby as a newborn wrapped in a stocking and dressed in a Christmas sweater with a star on the front. She was born just two days before my third Christmas, which made for a Christmas I will never forget.

  I gave Santa quite the challenge 16 years ago. For the majority of 2001, I told everyone who was willing to listen that the only thing I wanted for Christmas was a little sister. Santa really came through for me that year, and on December 23rd, 2001, I got exactly what I wanted. Jumping up and down in the hallway at North Kansas City Hospital in a little green sweater with jingle bells on it, I excitedly greeted my new companion. Being a newborn baby, she was quiet and small and adorable. We dressed her in Christmas sweaters and matching hats, took hundreds of pictures of her, and, of course, my parents gushed over her every chance they got. It must’ve slipped my two-year-old mind that babies get bigger.

   In the following years, I considered exchanging my Christmas present a time or two. I was jealous that she stole Mom and Dad’s attention, so I made a surprise guest appearance in every single one of baby Colby’s home videos. I even went as far to tell my grandpa that I would prefer if he was just my grandpa and not my sister’s.

   Then one day, she started listening to the same music that I did, shared her clothes with me and became a partner in all of my shenanigans. I found myself missing her when she spent the night at a friend’s house.

   As high schoolers, we got to be on the tennis court together. Getting third place at State with my sister brought us closer than I ever thought we could be. She is my best friend and biggest supporter. I realize now that the Christmas gift I received in 2001 is the greatest gift that I will ever receive.