Tuesday, December 19, 2006

White Elephant Presents

I received an invitation to a Christmas party tonight, one of the things being to bring a "white elephant" Christmas present.   I'd forgotten about White Elephant presents.  Some of my best presents have been White Elephant presents, i.e., something somebody wrapped up because they didn't want it around their house any more.   One of the nicest ones I got was a beautiful antique "dancing lady" covered dish that I got from Ms. Hamm, who was my boss at the University of Illinois, Department of Graduate and Foreign Admissions.   The covered dish was a lady wearing a beautiful blue dress.  You don't see a lot of things made out of this blue frosted glass anymore.  It was a sort of turquoise blue.  My mother has absconded with the dish, and she uses it in her bathroom to hold cotton balls.  But she acknowledges that it's really my dish.  She has lots of things at her house that are really mine.  I let her keep them because she enjoys them.

Well, back to the White Elephant gift that I have to come up with.   Supposedly a white elephant is something that you have and don't need anymore.  I've got a box of floppy disks that I don't need anymore.  I've got a huge book called Fires and Explosions: Determining Cause and Origin, by Kennedy.  It's green and would make somebody a good doorstop.  I certainly have no use for it.  It was a very expensive book purchased by a former employer for a personal injury case.  The former boss very generously gave it to my son.  My son, very generously, didn't take it with him when he moved out.    I have tons and tons of books.  I could gift a book as a white elephant.  Perhaps it would be looked upon by its recipient with some favor.   White Elephant gifting is a good way to clean house.   But the box might be too big to transport to the party.

Well, off I go to deliver a book to someone on the other side of town, and then home to get ready for the party tonight.

This is my second Christmas party so far this season.  Though I'd prefer to stay at home and write my novel, I guess I must fight the urge to be a hermit and get out and socialize.   

Merry Christmas.  Love and Kisses, Jana.

No comments: