White Elephant Strategy

I confirmed a very important lesson during today’s potluck lunch and white elephant gift exchange, it’s better to take the gift you see rather than experience the child-like joy of opening an unknown gift.

The best part of today’s white elephant gift exchange?  The first gift opened was a small white elephant.

The worst part of today’s white elephant gift exchange?  At least 25% of this year’s gifts were regifted from last year’s white elephant exchange.  It was really funny, last year, when someone opened one of the crappy gifts.  It isn’t nearly as funny when it happens the second year.  There are gifts that can carry a laugh year over year, but a set of mugs doesn’t fit that description.

I got my gift picking turn about halfway through the event.  I had already seen so many, way to many, repeat gifts coming out of gift bags, so I used my power of theft and claimed the cans of instant snow that someone had picked a few rounds earlier.  That seemed like a questionable strategy until several of the unopened gifts turned out to be car air freshner and the aforementioned set of mugs.

I gave a box with soap.  What else would it have been?  I ‘cigar wrapped’ descriptions around five bars of soap and put a general description with the ingredients in the box.  I used packing paper, used packing paper, to wrap the box and it looked so bad that it was one of the last 4-5 gifts to be selected.  It got a good reception from my work colleagues that have seen my soap before and when the less aware learned what it was they seemed to be suitably impressed.  My box of soap was stolen before the gift exchange was finished and that felt good.

I have about 3-4 gifts to buy to finish up my Christmas shopping.  I have to remember to drop by Sam’s Club to get a gift card (why don’t they sell these in the grocery store like every other gift card?) so step-daughter can renew her membership.  A jigsaw, calendar and teapot should finish everything else out.

Other than that, I can’t think of anything else to write about.

Ender is out.