People come together for White Elephants

According to phrases.com, the meaning of White elephant is, ”
A burdensome possession; creating more trouble than it is
worth.”  And yet these are the most entertaining parties during the holiday season.  It gives us an excuse to pass on that tacky gift we either received at last year’s white elephant gift exchange or somehow managed to receive during the course of the year.  According to Wikipedia here is a little history on White Elephants and their place in American’s Christmases.

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“A white elephant is an item that is either useless,
unweildy, expensive to maintain, or otherwise not worth the expense of keeping.
The term originally derived from the sacred East Asian white elephant, a holy
animal that could not be abandoned, used or mistreated. Since an elephant was
(and is) quite expensive to keep, one which can be of no use to it’s owner is
quite a financial catastrophe. Often a noble or king who was displeased with a
lesser noble in Thailand would gift the noble with a white elephant, a
superficial symbol of status, wealth and luck that would lead the lesser noble
into bankruptcy and ruin. So clearly, a white elephant is something to be wary
of, as it is intended to be useless, whether you are in an office in Brooklyn
or a royal gathering in Thailand!”

Chad and I have managed to attend three white elephant gift exchanges this past week.  We also managed to walk away with nothing that created more trouble than it’s worth.  How that worked out, I’m not sure, some may claim that since we are married we had  somewhat of an advantage.  I’d like to think we got lucky.  Either way we have nothing to add to our collection of worthless possessions!  

The latest exchange was with the small group we lead for the youth at Lanier Hills.