BONUS 6: Adapting Traditions: Embracing Change for a Growing Family

[00:00:02] Hi everyone and welcome to the Monomyth Diaries. I'm Mandi and I'm Karen and we'll be your hosts. We're glad you're joining us.

[00:00:14] Welcome back to another edition of the Monomyth Shorts.

[00:00:17] We're going to talk about Christmas time and the holiday season which can be an incredible joyous and festive occasion or it could be something that's a little less stellar.

[00:00:28] Sometimes the holidays can be a lot of fun, sometimes they can be stressful. So if you haven't had an opportunity to listen to some of our previous episodes,

[00:00:35] episodes two and three kind of talk about this in my Monomyth where I went from a Christmas disaster to a Christmas miracle.

[00:00:43] I don't know if anybody are familiar with the white elephant game. It's something my household particularly loves to play because we have a lot of fun with it.

[00:00:52] It's where you know you go to a gathering and you bring a gift and people, you swap gifts and sometimes you might end up with a present that you're going to be less than pleased with.

[00:01:04] Let's talk a little bit about a white elephant if we can because I think white elephant is meant to not have great gifts.

[00:01:12] Is that correct?

[00:01:13] That's the way I played it. You're cleaning your home, you're going to find something ridiculous and crazy and that's what you bring to white elephant game and people unwrap it and laugh at it.

[00:01:26] And you can either compete in fight for the most ridiculous gift or for some it's like you compete to get rid of the most of that particular gift.

[00:01:36] And you've actually played this in your family.

[00:01:39] Yes, through my church and other social gatherings I've done different iterations and I've seen it all.

[00:01:46] With gag gifts though?

[00:01:46] Yeah.

[00:01:47] With gag gifts.

[00:01:48] Like crazy, crazy stuff.

[00:01:50] Actually the social group that I for a while I was part of it was about getting the absolute worst and craziest and most insane way out of it.

[00:02:01] I have never participated in that. I have participated in something similar but they were good gifts.

[00:02:06] I've been to one where everybody was supposed to bring a book.

[00:02:08] That's nice.

[00:02:09] I've been to one every single year as part of my neighborhood actually.

[00:02:12] We have a little Christmas party and we do an ornament exchange and it's a competition to get the ornament that you really, really want.

[00:02:20] Oh, that's so nice.

[00:02:22] Yes, that's a lot of fun.

[00:02:23] And there's some stealing that goes on.

[00:02:24] And so I didn't really realize until recently that they, they played bad gifts.

[00:02:30] Yeah.

[00:02:30] Yeah.

[00:02:31] There was actually one I went to last year.

[00:02:33] Um, there was a mini pancake maker, but the, the one everyone fought over and, and I think there was like a dollar cap.

[00:02:43] Like I think it was like, you couldn't be more worth more than $10.

[00:02:46] It's like some massage pad.

[00:02:48] People were fighting over this thing.

[00:02:51] It was like they wanted it.

[00:02:53] And, um, for a brief moment, my husband had it and then someone's teenage daughter scooped it out and it was actually a great gift for her.

[00:03:00] She managed to take it home.

[00:03:01] So, but it was, it's just funny, the things that incites people's energy.

[00:03:06] And it's also interesting to see what are the ones that are like, people are like, no, no, no, I don't want to take that home.

[00:03:11] Right?

[00:03:12] So the reason why we're talking about this is one of our listeners wrote in, uh, to the website and we're going to share that.

[00:03:19] It says for the last 10 years, one of our holiday traditions is having a white elephant gift exchange, but with a different twist.

[00:03:28] What do I mean by this?

[00:03:29] Well, read on and you'll find out.

[00:03:31] I come from a big family.

[00:03:33] What's big?

[00:03:33] Well, we are 40 adults excluding kids.

[00:03:38] And by kids, I'm referring to anyone under the age of 10.

[00:03:41] We decided to incorporate the white elephant gift exchange within our family because we were simply getting big and it was getting too expensive to give a gift to everyone.

[00:03:52] So my sisters and cousins decided, let's twist it around.

[00:03:58] And instead of giving a gift that nobody wanted, it would be a gift that would be of interest.

[00:04:04] And we set a price limit at $50 and under.

[00:04:06] So everyone brings a gift and you wrap it up beautifully or very unappealing your choice.

[00:04:13] When we're ready to play, we put the number of family members in a hat or box, shake it up.

[00:04:19] And everyone picks a number.

[00:04:21] You can only steal a gift twice, though.

[00:04:23] It's so much fun.

[00:04:24] And in the end, everyone walks away with a gift.

[00:04:26] Family kids under the age of 10 do get gifts, though.

[00:04:30] We believe Christmas is a time for family and reflection on the birth of Christ and for the children.

[00:04:35] This was Angela.

[00:04:36] And I just, I think that that's so lovely that they have, you know, taken the idea of giving gifts, right?

[00:04:45] And put a little bit of twist on it.

[00:04:47] So they still have, they get to keep that tradition.

[00:04:49] Yes.

[00:04:50] But it's less expensive.

[00:04:51] Everybody's happy.

[00:04:52] I just think that's lovely.

[00:04:53] Absolutely.

[00:04:54] And I also love that they took a game that, you know, for some, like myself, is a bit of a negative, like, it's like a ha-ha prank gift time to pushing it towards something like, this is highly sought after.

[00:05:09] There's obviously care and consideration brought, you know, in selecting what they were going to bring to the party.

[00:05:15] And everybody leaves satisfied.

[00:05:17] Yeah, I think it's a lot of fun.

[00:05:19] I was actually thinking my competitive nature would want to be the person who bought such a great gift that everybody was fighting over it.

[00:05:25] Oh, that's part of the fun.

[00:05:29] So Angela, thanks for writing in.

[00:05:31] We're very excited to have listeners writing into the show.

[00:05:34] And if you've got any other traditions or personal stories that you would like to have read in one of our Monomyth Diaries shorts, please send it to either monomythdiaries at gmail.com or through our website at WMD.

[00:05:47] www.monomythdiaries.com.

[00:05:51] Thanks for joining us.

[00:05:52] See you next time.

[00:05:53] Please share, hit like, subscribe, and follow us on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.

[00:05:59] Feel free to email us at monomythdiaries at gmail.com with your monomyth and keep the conversations going.

[00:06:07] Until next time, heroes, let's journey together through stories.