Ray and I have been married 25 years and during this time have experienced years of abundance and some lean times. This year for us, as I believe for many others will be a lean year. I find that it is the lean years that I enjoy the most, because it brings out the creativity in everyone.
About three years back we decided that for the Martin family gathering at Ray's parents house, everyone from Ray's grandmother all the way down to Bobby's youngest daughter who was around four at the time, we would have a white elephant gift exchange with absolutely no money allowed to be spent. Even if it meant you had to wrap it in newspaper, keep it to a zero budget.
While others fought crowds at the mall and department stores, our family was plotting and planning on what would be the "perfect" item to "re-gift" for the family Christmas celebration. It was the first time I had seen my children giddy with anticipation over who would receive the gift they had carefully selected versus the usual expectation over what they themselves would be receiving.
I will never forget Ray's dad Chuck opening the gift my youngest daughter Abby had carefully wrapped and placed under the tree. The look on his face was priceless when he held up, then carefully placed upon his head, a red and white paper Varsity hat, while asking in a cadence we all recognized at once, "Whaddaya Have?! Whaddaya Have?!"
This past Wednesday night marked the beginning of the holiday gift giving season for us. Abby, my youngest, had a Christmas party to attend with her youth group at church. It was a white elephant gift exchange. Abby asked if I would scrounge something up for her to wrap, so I did. True to Abby fashion she waited until we were within 5 minutes of the church before turning to me and saying, "Mom, my gift is a little on the practical side, I kinda wanted it to be funny." I glanced over at her and said, "Funny, good grief girl why didn't you say so! I was holding back 'cause I thought I would embarrass you."
We then whipped the truck into the Quik Trip where we purchased a nice fresh corn dog which we proceeded to cover in the wrapper from the rejected gift and trucked it on to the church house.
While it was not the only odd gift by far, it was the only warm one, and listening to the youth leaders wife voice her concern over what might actually be wrapped up in the "warm" gift made it worth the last minute switcheroo.
This year shall prove to be doubly exciting since my side of the family has now adopted the tradition as well and I look forward to the craziness that a White Elephant Christmas brings!© 2010 Annette Bagley-Martin
