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This is the story of a bad gift we gave that kept coming back.
When I was about 8 or so, my dad and I visited the bookstore. I loved to read, so this was always a treat. After I picked out my books, my dad waited in the checkout line and let me explore the gifts section by the checkout. I was wandering through the racks of scrapbook kits and stuffed animals when I saw her. A frighteningly disfigured elf doll. I was both thoroughly creeped out and highly intrigued. When my dad got back, he took one look at the doll and immediately bought her for an upcoming white elephant party. A few weeks later, my parents dumped Grandma Elf on some poor souls at the white elephant and that was the end of that.
Or so we thought. My family routinely hosted a New Year's Eve party for couples with kids roughly the same age as us at our house. The lucky family that received the elf was there because the kids were good friends with my brother and sister. We would find out months later that they had stashed Grandma Elf in our towel closet. It was pretty startling running out of towels and finding that thing, still in its pristine box.
My family decided we would leave the doll with the other family at the next possible chance. Thankfully, there was a small group dinner that June. We brought the elf doll, and my siblings and I watched in awe as my dad opened the drop-down attic ladder and stashed her with the family's Christmas decorations. Unfortunately, my brother, now aged 7, couldn't keep secrets. In a moment of weakness, he told the other kids that we'd hidden the doll in their house, and they would never find it. Well, the kids told their dad, and he asked my brother. It didn't take much to get him to talk. My brother walked back to us, holding the doll in shame. In a last-ditch effort, after we left the house, we drove back around the block and threw the doll over their fence into the backyard. She appeared on top of our parked car after church the next Sunday.
A few years later, we had switched churches, and put the elf in the new white elephant, hoping she would find a family who would try to give her back as sneakily as the other one had. But the little girl that opened that gift loved the doll, so we haven't seen her since.
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