This year, I didn’t make my usual trip back East to see the folks. Although I love seeing everyone, I didn’t look forward to the hassles of air travel during the holidays or driving in the ice and snow. We’re a big family, with many cousins and four generations who gather together at this time of year to share food, a warm fire and the usual celebrations.
Because of logistics and our sheer numbers, with a lot of planning and pre-shipping, we do a traditional gift exchange, which makes everyone happy on Christmas Day. But the real fun is the preview event on Christmas Eve: the White Elephant Gift Exchange.
For this event, we setup a videoconference, and I participated via Skype. It was a hoot! My nephew setup a laptop and videocam in my folks’ living room, and another cousin was the designated director, angling the camera to follow the negotiations. My sister acted as proxy for me, stealing gifts and snagging the best one for me. I have a similar setup here, so they all saw and heard me in real time.
By far, this was the best holiday ever – all the fun, none of the drama. Go figure. It seems that when you gather folks in front of a videocamera, everyone’s on their best behavior…and no one shares the snarky comments or sniping gossip that happens there, in person. Wow. Gotta make this a new holiday tradition.
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