How To: White Elephant

We missed my work Christmas Party this year. But we made it to two parties for Nate; one for the hospital where he does his schooling and one for the hospital where he does X-ray twice a week. Let me tell you what a difference free alcohol made between the two parties, haha. Anyway, we had the same babysitter both nights and she asked at the end of the second night why I kept leaving and returning with the same wrapped gift. So I thought I would do a little tutorial on How To Guarantee You Don't Get A Crappy Gift At A White Elephant Gift Exchange.

Step 1: Staying within the $10 limit, go out an buy a gift that you would actually like to have yourself. Say, for example, a tasteful end table from the housewares section at Ross:

Step 2: Wrap the table in the only bag big enough to cover it. Because of the Pokemon character and the size of the item, people think it must be a gag gift. So they never choose it.

Step 3: Select the gift you brought. Merry Christmas to you.

At the second party, I was almost the last person to go. So nobody had a chance to 'steal' the table from me. But at the first party, that wasn't the case and another mean lady (who obviously had good taste) dared to steal it. Luckily, that was the party where each couple brought two gifts. So, I promptly stole Nathan's gift and made him go steal my tableÜ

At the party where we had to bring two gifts, Nathan refused to choose the other gift we brought. He said it's no fun if you know what it is. So instead of going home with a very nice set of salad plates, serving bowl, and ceramic spoon rest (which all "happen" to match our kitchen very nicely), this is what he chose instead:

"Grillz" Fake Teeth, A Flashing Christmas Wreath Pin, and---I KID YOU NOT---Salmon in Brine

We have two more White Elephant Exchanges this year (one for his family and one for mine). So I just want to give fair warning that I am getting rid of the Salmon Ü hahaha.