Of
course I put together some unstoppable trivia quizzes. Categories this year? Christmas song initials, What Carol is this?
(Given an obscure line of a carol, tell the title. This one proved very difficult), Christmas
Foods (way too difficult for the crowd this year), Quotes from Christmas
Movies, and Christmas Potpourri. Lots of
laughter and working together on all of them (not to mention the presence of
the serious food) helped everyone relax and enjoy the games. When the time was right (read here: When
Chris said let’s get started), I read through the trivia answers (mystifying
and amazing with answers unexpected and, well, trivial). Then I read the Christmas story and
prayed.
The gift
exchange rules were pretty basic. Open a
gift from under the tree or “choose to receive from someone else the wonderful
gift of an already opened present.” When
a gift has been in different possession three times it remains there unto
eternity (or until next year’s white elephant party). And whoever has number one gets to close out
the game by keeping his gift or doing one final gesture of good will and
trading it with anyone whose gift has not yet been frozen. Great fun?
Why sure.
The
gifts themselves were wide and varied.
Betty received a gorgeous glass polar bear (actually the closest thing
to a real white elephant we had this year).
I remember seeing not one but two Disney princess snow globe music
boxes. I couldn’t tell you which
princesses they were (have to ask Cailyn), but one was blue and one was pink
(the globes, not the princesses). A
garbage bag that looked like it was full of, well garbage, proved to contain an
entire apartment full of random stuff, including some beanie babies and a
wooden angel. There were a few of those Christmas
cocoa and coffee mug combinations as well as a free spirit coffee mug with
Christmas lights imprinted on it. A huge
jar of animal crackers was popular, and its twin, filled with chees puff balls
quickly disappeared into a “place of safe-keeping” behind Andrew. And before he got got home, there might have
been three or four of the cheese balls left.
On the “ooh, aah” side of things, someone went away with a Blue tooth
amplifier, and someone else found a machine that I think creates blue ray discs
from DVD’s. Giraffe skin stationery, a
giant candy cane filled with candy, a Starbucks gift box, some wonderfully Christmasy
themed paper plates and napkins, and a box full of … gift bags all made its way
home with appreciative new owners. And if
you don’t count Jennifer’s three attempts to take baby Cedric away from his Mommy,
then a large framed painting of Elsa was the only gift that ended up being frozen. Get it? “Frozen.”
Two of
my favorites were the Flippin’ Chickens (robbery beasts with a hole in the head
for your finger. Then you pull the tail
back and let ‘er fly) and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle gooey smash ball. Super TMNT fan Brennan ended up with that
one, and gooey it was. I think I want
one.
The award
for most entertaining gift recipients of the evening went to Cailyn and
Houston. Cailyn was visibly disappointed
when she first opened a picture frame.
She received new life when someone thanked her for opening their gift
and took it out of her hands. Next she
discovered a quite large ladies night shirt, imprinted with the togs of none
other than Saint Nick, himself. Again,
not so happy. But after yet another
redeemer of gifts, her third attempt resulted in a very nice women’s makeup kit
(actually I have no idea what the stuff inside was, but the bag looked really
nice. She took that one home. Whew.
Houston
was no less entertaining from the male standpoint. He first opened a wire letter rack that you
can hang on the wall (why do I know so much about it? Because Chris became his gracious present
reliever. Now we have a wonderful wire
letter rack. Look for it next
year). With his precious wire rack
graciously (and rapidly) presented to another, Houston was free to gather up
his next prize, a package of women’s soaps.
Not so wonderful a sight to his young, almost-a-teenager eyes. Again his face fell in disappointment. And again he met one who relieved him of his
burden. And his time his excavations
revealed a nice set of men’s colognes.
He wasn’t quite sure how to feel about this one, that is, until I reminded
him, “With the soap you had to take a bath.
With this you can smell good and never have to bathe.” Not sure his mother agreed with my
assessment, but I did detect a rather strong cologne-ish odor before they left
the house. Houston’s good for tomorrow,
Wyrick family. More shower time for
everyone.
Leaving the best for last, there was one gift, the absolute dream gift of the decade. It came in a simple square-ish picture frame, but the image within was - how can I say it? – priceless. Right there, in my very living room, was a framed picture of none other than the world famous, internationally acclaimed masterpiece … “Lora Dressed as a Hot Dog.” Compelling. It was the one I certainly would have selected to grace our wall somewhere in the house. But alas, as it happened, I had a host-ly obligation to end the game, for it was a school night, and time for all good young padawans to curl up in their Christmas blankets and go to sleep. One more school day until Christmas vacation.
Romans
6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is
death, but the gift of God is eternal life in
Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Father,
thank you for your most special gift to us: The baby who would grow up to
become the Savior. Amen.
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