Saturday, December 13, 2008

Two Weeks of Christmas Memories: Episode Three

When I was in the youth group at Ramona First Baptist Church (which later became Mountain View Community Church) we had white elephant gift exchanges. I love and adore white elephant exchanges. I have been a part of many hysterical Christmas parties that had, at their center, white elephant nonsense. One year, however, I did not leave the event very happy.

Everyone before me opened traditional (can traditional be associated with the phrase "white elephant"?) gifts. There was Barbie stationery. There were cans of Cheez Whiz. There was Power Ranger Bubble Bath. I approached the pile of gifts and saw one that looked especially interesting. It was oddly shaped and wrapped in pretty paper. I snatched it up. As I eagerly unwrapped it I discovered that someone misunderstood the meaning of white elephant.

Inside of my package I discovered four empty soda cans tied together with a shoe lace. Obviously, no one traded for my gift.

3 comments:

  1. this sounds exactly like the sort of gift my husband would think was PERFECT for a white elephant exchange. one year he insisted on wrapping up a used toilet bowl brush (oh yes he did). another year it was a single fork. i think the year he got the closest was when he gave a copy of the book "kama sutra" at our church cell group christmas party. we both thought it would be hysterical, but apparently the person who received that gift didn't share our sense of humor :)

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  2. Yeah I was thinking Josh S. too....poor Heidi is going to have her hands full with three kids in a couple of months. Josh will never give up being a kid himself of course!

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