I Told You It Was A Fantastic White Elephant Gift...

Earlier this month I posted a picture of a wrapped present. The caption went something like this--it's for a company Christmas white elephant gift, and it's a great one.

Or something like that. 

The message I waned to convey is that I thought this was a fantastic white elephant gift. 

Last week we went sibling shopping. It's where we take the kids to a large store--usually Walmart--and they separate. They search for an inexpensive gift for each of their siblings. Four kids, three gifts. My son thought it would be fun to go to the cheap DVD bin and find some classic shows as presents. When he looked for a gift for his only sister, he found some Hallmark Christmas videos.

Bingo!

He had her gift.

As he and I walked from the electronics department, we passed the clothing section. I glanced over and saw some flannel shirts on sale. 

Then, it hit--I found my white elephant gift.

I ran back, picked up a cheap Christmas movie DVD and found a flannel shirt. I brought them home and wrapped them up. 

For those who are fans of this particular film genre, there are some "detail choices" familiar in many of the stories. Usually, there's a single, thirty-something girl who leaves her high-power job in a big city to go on vacation and return home to her small town where she finds some sort of crisis only she can take on. In addition, it's in this small town she meets "Mr. Right." He's either an old boyfriend or a new love interest. One thing's for certain--he's a much better match, romantically, than her current boyfriend/fiancee, who always seems to show up in the small town, thus ensuring a conflict of emotion for the main character.

Will she stay with Mr. Good, but not Right, or Mr. Right?

Mr. Good, but not Right wears a suit.

Mr. Right wears flannel.

Usually.

These are not hard and fast rules, but more often than not, this is what happens.

My team at work is comprised mostly of women. Since I work from home, I don't know these ladies very well, so I'm not sure if they understood the flannel reference. The co-worker who did end up with the gift, loved her new shirt, so it was a success.

Even though they may not have gotten the meaning, I thought it was great.

Family Christmas Party...2016 Edition

The Sunday before Christmas my wife's parents invite us over for a get-together. It's my mother-in-law's Sunday before Christmas Party. This year we combined two family traditions, the party, and helping to decorate my in-law's house for Christmas.

A few years ago we were asked to help decorate their home, so we went over a few weeks early and put up their tree as well as all the other knick-knacks. This year we waited just a little bit. One thing I've enjoyed doing is taking out the camera and snapping a few pictures. 

I'm including all these photos more for my benefit than for yours. I have no idea if this blog will even been accessible years or even decades from now, even though it should be. I hope, though my kids will be able to access this and other blog posts and remember that on a cold day in December, 2016, we went over to their grandparent's house and had a delicious dinner, played a fun White Elephant game and helped decorate a house for Christmas.

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.