Throughout one's lifetime, you experience a multitude of things. Your lifetime is nothing but a compilation of various moments which you celebrate with loved ones (or, if you're unlucky, with people you don't really like, but that's another story). Two of my favorite moments both happen to be Christmas-themed (ah yes, we do indeed love the holiday spirit).
This is the story of giving with a twist: White Elephant.
White Elephant is a party in which everyone brings in a present, lays it on the table, and people take turns selecting their gift of choice (hoping to avoid being betrayed and having it stolen by someone else with good taste).
This particular White Elephant party took place at my uncle's house where everyone had gathered to spend time together. In general, the gift-giving and swapping went smoothly, with the exception of one fateful gift: A Taylor Lautner poster, which my cousin-in-law managed to get stuck with.
Keep in mind, this was the era of Twilight madness when girls would fawn over Edward and Jacob like they were the last boys (or animals) on the face of this earth. Unfortunately for him, my cousin was not one of those girls - or even a girl at all for that matter.
So there he sat, stuck with a poster of a boy he didn't particularly like, eyeing other people's gifts.
He might have tried to be subtle, but I knew what he was up to, and he wasn't about to take my gift from me.
Our eyes met. I could feel him asking me if I could take it and give it away to one of the boy-crazed girls at my school, begging me to relieve him of the burden that Taylor Lautner's shirtless body held.
Too bad, I guess. He was stuck with it.
I watched as the disappointment washed over him, as the realization that he would have to keep it out of respect for our uncle sunk in. He left that party one poster richer, although what he did with it after is a trade secret.
Besides this white elephant, there was also another one during which I gave away a gift that became the turning point of a party.
I was a peer leader in high school at the time. For our White Elephant gift exchange, I wanted to give away a Hello Kitty doll.
I put it next to the other gifts in the classroom. It was such a pity that I did not attend the party because something did happen with my Hello Kitty doll at the gift exchange.
I found out about it the next day from my teacher. She told me every single detail about it.
One male peer leader got the Hello Kitty doll. He seemed fine with it. At one moment, he wanted to put the Hello Kitty down on the table.
He did not notice that it sat on a female peer leader's pizza. Both of their expressions got tense when they saw the sauce splattering on the white feline doll. Say hello to pizza sauce!
That hello got them into an argument. They were not angry, but it was funny. Everyone saw what was happening and laughed.
The male peer leader left that party one painted doll richer.
At the end of the story, my teacher said she was hoping to give that doll to me instead, but I said that there was no need because I was the reason the doll winded up at the party in the first place.
All I can say is goodbye, Hello Kitty!
