At our bible study's Christmas party last night, we had a White Elephant gift exchange. For those who don't know what that is, it is essentially a chance to empty your clutter into a box, wrap it neatly and let someone else figure out what to do with it. Every family does this and then picks a package out of the pile of prettily wrapped boxes or steals one of the nicer packages from someone else. Sort of an odd Christmas tradition.At any rate, my son emerged from watching a movie with the other children just in time for our turn to pick. I let him select the package and unwrap it. As he opened it, his eyes lit up.
Oh wow! Oh wow!He exclaimed. He had seen the freezie pops thrown in on top.
This is the best ever!He shouted as he pulled out an old telephone and a watch box containing a golf ball.
Oh, I hope nobody takes our present.He worried as he pulled out the oddest merging of technologies I have seen in awhile: AM/FM binoculars.
He hovered a bit to see what would become of our package, but finally got bored and returned to his friends. He came to investigate all the laughing while we were playing Taboo and the first thing he did was verify that no one had taken our present. He gave a cheer and went to check on the box, just to make sure. He held it all the way home and I don't think he quite understood why his father didn't share the same enthusiasm for the gold we struck at the party.
And I think I already knew this intuitively, but it made clear that if you ever want to clean out a garage or attic, all you need do is invite over a five year old boy from the neighborhood and he'll see the same worth in your stored away treasures as you did back when you bought them.
