From $300,000 elephants to white ones...

Over the weekend, I participated in two white elephant gift exchanges, where everyone brings a gift, and then we take turns either opening a gift or stealing someone else's gift until it's been stolen three times. And both times, I got awesome results. It took a bit of luck and a little strategy, but I am 2 for 2 in recovering my own gift. Might sound kind of lame, but hey, we were supposed to bring something we would want ourselves, right?

Saturday:
22 people involved. The funny thing was everyone could tell if it was a boy gift (newspaper or sloppy cover job) or a girl gift (neat with bows and ribbons) based on the way the gift was wrapped. I was somewhere in the middle and ended up picking a guy gift, a North Face beanie. Based on some of the earlier opened gifts, I was quite satisfied with my selection. I held on to the beanie until the last round. There was one wrapped gift left, which happened to be mine. I guess it's always a good strategy to go after the known commodity, so a gift got stolen, which in turn led to my beanie getting taken. After scanning the available gifts, I decided I would rather just pick my own, a Nacho Libre* dvd.

Sunday:
26 people involved. Lots of stealing and really good action. Alliances were being made to steal and protect gifts. I tried to steal a toaster oven, but the Q family alliance was too strong and took it back. But then Pat stole the Voltron dvds (my gift) from one of the Q's. When someone stole it from him, we had to start the Poon alliance. He stole my gift, and I stole the Voltron dvds back for keeps.


* I like Jack Black. He was great in School of Rock, where he pretended to be a substitute teacher, kind of like me. But he made my Hall of Fame when he punted Ron Burgandy's poodle off the bridge in Anchorman. One of my favorite movie moments ever.