according to wikipedia....

... white elephant gift exchanges are also called "thieving elves." Who knew?

When I was in high school I remember going to a white elephant gift exchange and ending up with a pale blue 70's lamp shaped like an elephant. It was pretty cool.

Last year, we did a W.E.G.E. at the parents', and I ended up with a pretty awesome mini-tool set that the brothers criticized me for stealing. They asked me what I'd do with it, and I said since I didn't have a tool set, I'd use it instead of borrowing others' tools. Every girl oughta have a screwdriver, right?

At the office holiday party today, we were exchanging $10.00 "nice" gifts...(Why do people insist on nice gifts? Isn't the point of white elephant gags??) so I stole back the card game I brought, because it looked pretty good compared to all the rest...This could be interpreted as a breaking of the rules, since I brought it, but seriously, card games beat snowmen salt and pepper shakers any day.

season of imagination

My friend Kait sent me NY Times article today and I thought about how powerfully transforming imaginations running wild can be.

Shane Claiborne speaks to this when telling of a friend who spread manure in their Christmas Eve service. There was also a donkey. The point of course, is not really to authentically recreate what happened at Jesus’ birth, but to remind us that when we use our imaginations to inform our celebrations, they are changed, and we along with them.

if you can keep a plant alive...

So I just finished house-sitting for friends for a month and I think I killed all their plants. They don't own pets, and the point of me being there really was to keep the plants alive. They mostly had cactuses, which makes my plant negligence worse. Reminds me of that Sandra Bullock movie where she's told when leaving rehab that if she can keep a plant alive for a year, she can get a dog. If she keeps the dog alive for a year, then she can consider dating. Maybe this is my dating problem: I can't keep a plant alive. Hmm. I'm going to have to think about this one....

Thomas Bickle

My friends Scott and Sarah have a son Thomas, an adorable two year old who happens to have cancer. They thought they'd got rid of it, but it came back. It's not operable, or treatable, or go-away-able this time.

Sarah's thoughts about this on her latest blog posting are worth reading, especially in a season where we so often rush around and fill our time with things we think we need to do, instead of being with people we care about just because we can.

out in the harbor/ the ships come in it's Christmastime/ the kids all holler carols cross the water/ Stars that shine

Oh, weepies, how we love you. What a great song to sing and now that Penney's picked it up for its holiday ad, you'll get more royalties and maybe release your next album faster, which would be awesome!