The White Elephant Game...

The White Elephant Game...it surfaces at parties--usually Christmas parties--whether they be at work or home or church or school. I've been to many a Christmas party where we've played the game. Tonight we went to my wife's parent's house and played the game again. Though the rules may be different, the goal, I think, remains a constant...try to take something home better than the sub-standard gift you brought.

At my in-law's house, we roll a set of dice. If you get doubles, you get to chose a gift. After all the gifts are opened, we continue to roll until either a set time limit has been reached or people basically are satisfied with what they got. For us tonight it was the latter.

The kids had fun. The adults had fun, and tonight's White Elephant Game produced, in my opinion, two of the best White Elephant gifts I've ever seen. One we brought...my father-in-law ended up with our gift, a six-pack of Kirkland brand Bath Tissue (two layers--you know, the good stuff...).

But the best White Elephant gift came from my mother-in-law, and I was lucky enough to bring the prize home. A decor store in our town is going out of business and she picked up, at a 90% discount, a box of fake cucumbers. Yes, it's a box of fake cucumbers! How cool is that!

And so, the White Elephants have been exchanged for, at least, another year. And who knows... If I'm invited to a similar event at Christmastime in 2013, some lucky person just might be taking home the Holy Grail of White Elephant gifts...the non-edible cucumbers.