year of fun

Driving back from Iowa in time to work at noon was not so fun. Going to a white elephant party after work, however, was super fun. White elephant can be done many ways but, the way I have always played (and the way we played last night) the rules are:

• Bring anything you own that is funny, unwanted, used, dorky, etc.
• Wrap it but do not put any kind of tag on it.
• At the party, put all the presents in one place. Then everyone draws a number.
• The person who drew number one gets to pick a present and open it.
• The person who drew number two can steal from number one or open a new present and so on until the last person goes.
• A present cannot be stolen more than two or three times (depending on how many people you have).
• If your present is stolen you may either open a new one or steal a different one.
• This goes on until all presents have been opened, at which point the person who drew number one gets to make one last steal if he/she desires, ending the game.

We did this with seven people so it did not take that long. (I started this as a tradition for my extended family on my mom’s side with about 20 people and that takes a while). I gave a martini glass picture frame with picture of Elphie’s face in it (somehow the hubs ended up with this, so watch out family) and I got two books that are going straight to the garage sale pile. The game was definitely fun but seeing friends was better. These are friends that we, unfortunately, do not see too often but with whom we can always pick right back up.

Side note: I do not have any pictures from tonight because I totally forgot about writing the blog while I was there. This has happened before and I think it is because I am enjoying myself so much I’m not thinking about writing about it later. This is good but now I’m sad that I don’t have any photos to share. I’m looking for a happy medium between being conscious of documenting these events and just have fun.