24 guests showed up on that frigid night to warm my house with lots of cheer, spirits and laughter. I have a cozy townhouse, and to have 24 people in my kitchen and family room makes for an intimate party.
The hit of the night was the gift exchange. Here was the instructions I gave my guests for the white elephant gift: find an item that is in new or slightly used condition that might be unsightly, ridiculous, outrageous, obnoxious, useless, or simply silly. It shouldn't be worth much and wrap it up in anything (newspaper, wrap, a brown paper bag, etc) and don't put your name on it.
My guests were given numbers and would open their "gifts" in chronological order. They had a choice to steal a gift (from someone who had already chosen) or pick a wrapped gift from the pile. Gifts included a strobe light, "The Perfect Man" (a little rubber guy), a socket set, a tiffany-looking turtle light, board games, candles, a personal body alarm, a latch hook horse rug, a spiced wine, a movie I never heard of, a pink Harley Davidson hat with a black Jack Daniels hat, a latte frother, an inspirational cd, a 2008 calendar, the pancake puffer (it squeezes filling into a pancake), and so on... These were all great white elephant gifts but the 'creme de creme' gift of the night was chosen by my friend, Linda. Linda originally picked the latch hook horse rug. She was begging for people to steal the rug so she could pick again from the pile. Wrong move, Linda. Ed, my sweetie, decided he could use the rug and stole it from Linda. Linda was giddy with excitement because that meant that she could either steal from someone else or pick again from the "pile o' crap". I guess she was feeling adventurous because she decided to steal from the pile. Again, wrong move, Linda.
She chose an object that many of were guessing was an album or a calendar. My guests were speculating...could it be an old Ann Murray album or possibly some obscure band we've never heard of. She unwrapped the item to discover it indeed was an album but not one of us would have guessed what it was. No, it was not any type of retro or country western music album...it was not music at all, in fact. The album cover was baby blue and in big white letters it was labeled "SEX". "SEX Education for Your Son", to be more specific. My guests roared with laughter at Linda's "new" gift. Ed looked at Linda and held up his newly acquired horse rug and said "The horse doesn't look so bad after all, does it Linda?" Jokes continued flying non-stop for the rest of the night. Ironically, Linda has 3 daughters (and of course the album is 30 some years old).
Moral of the Story: If you ever participate in a White Elephant Gift Exchange, STEAL! 'Cause at least you're going to get something that you know what it is! (Of course, if you are one of those people who draw an early number, you have no choice but to choose from the pile o' crap!)
