HED:Michaela Gibson Morris: Gibson sisters share more than Barb

AUTHOR: GIBSON

HED:Michaela Gibson Morris: Gibson sisters share more than Barbies

My sister Molly has always had a sense of style.

When we were little, we loved to play dress up. We would pull out funny vintage hats, cast-off slips and other frilly bits of frou frou that we believed to be quite elegant. Then we would sneak into Mom's closet and steal her shoes. We would also try to sneak into her makeup drawer to complete our look.

We were quite fetching in our smeared lipstick, I'm sure.

When we got a little bit older, we played dress up with our Barbie dolls and haggled over the best dresses, Barbie cars and control of the balcony in the Barbie Dream House. I remember coveting this strapless blue satin dress with a gold ribbon.

Today I get to play dress up with my sister again. This time, I get the blue dress, but Molly will definitely be the best-dressed Gibson sister on the scene.

After all, it's her wedding day.

Molly is the middle sister two and a half years younger than I am, three years older than Maura.

She's the organized, disciplined one with the determination to make it through two years of law school while holding down a job as an office manager for a law firm.

Like most sisters, we shared things when we had to and fought like terriers when we didn't get what we wanted.

(Molly's the only person I've ever punched. Sorry about that. I can't quite remember what started the commotion in the first place.)

We shared the same set of Barbies with mangled legs the dogs' fault and butchered hair our fault.

We shared clothes. Unfortunately for Molly, being the sister with the sense of style, she ended up on the lending end more than the borrowing end.

You might have noticed the three Gibson girls also shared the same initials MG. That bit of parental planning made it easy to hand down monogrammed sweaters, but it occasionally caused a bit of contention.

If we wanted to designate personal ownership, we had to use our middle initials. Sometimes, however, a coveted object would magically turn up with a different set of initials. Hence the contention.

We continue to share trouble with our first names. Maura and I have fairly unusual names that people have trouble pronouncing and spelling.

Molly has to deal with a different problem. He birth certificate says she is really Marion Patricia in honor of our maternal grandmother. It's a beautiful legacy, but it's a bit of a nuisance to explain to teachers on the first day of school. Some of her college professors never quite got it.

As the result of having two names she has never used, Molly has sworn never to give her future children one name and call them by another.

Molly and I also apparently share a preference for tall, dark, handsome men. Scott Morris and Steven Miller, Molly's groom, also share the same initials and wear contacts.

That's about where the similarities end. Steve is a golf-loving accountant, who used to ride bulls. Scott is a writer who studies aikido, a martial art, and has a great love for Alabama football.

After today, Molly and I will share the same initials again. Maybe we can introduce our youngest sister Maura to an appropriately named, eligible bachelor.

Michaela Gibson Morris is a Daily Journal staff writer.