Christmas Party!

Nora's niece is a secretary at Second Baptist, and when we ran into her the other evening at the Singing Christmas Tree event, she invited us to attend a get-together she was having on the 23rd. Most of the guests would be members of her singles group from Second Baptist. Neither I nor Nora are active participants in any church, mosque, synogogue, temple or coven, but to be honest it was the only Christmas Party I was invited to this year! (What's that, you say? Didn't your employer throw you a Christmas Party? Well, yes they did, thanks for asking. In 2001.) We decided to go to the party. There would be games and a White Elephant gift exchange.

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with a White Elephant gift exchange, it's an event where participants bring wrapped gifts and put them in a pile, then put their names in a hat. Names are drawn from the hat. When the first person's name is drawn, he or she selects a wrapped gift from the pile and unwraps it. What you got might not be what you keep, however. The second person can either select a gift from the pile or "steal" a gift they like from someone else. If your gift is "stolen" your name goes back into the hat and you can pick again or "steal" your gift back. We brought a gift certificate to Blockbuster and a silver reindeer candleholder.

The evening started with dinner and there was plenty of food -- turkey, ham, and tamales, a perennial favorite. There followed a Bible reading, inspirational message and Christmas carol, then the white elephant gift exchange. This experience proved the expression "One man's trash is another man's treasure." Nora got a CD. At first I thought it said "Counting Crows," and thought Wow, this is a liberal church group! Then I realized it said "Casting Crowns." We had no idea who that was. We looked at each other blankly and hoped someone would steal it. Someone did, almost immediately, and we were relieved. The next time she picked she got some holiday plates. Much better! Sheridan picked for me. She got a small, square frame with a little cross and the words He Lives in it. No offense, but that was pretty lame. Fortunately, someone stole it and we ended up with dominoes!