When good Santas go bad
We're home, happy, tired and back to our daily routines already.
MFB's family numbers more than mine and rather than every person exchanging a gift with everyone we have what I refer to as a "Gift Fight". It's a lot of fun. How it works is everyone brings a $20 gift, then we draw numbers. The first person opens a gift, the second person has the choice of "stealing" the gift or choosing one from the pile. The next person can steal any gift or open one and so on. If your gift is stolen you can steal or open another and any gift can be stolen only twice. The first year we brought a gift that was the hit of the party and everyone wanted it. When all was said and done an email with a picture of the victor reclining in his "chair in a bag" with a beer in his head was sent tauntingly to his sister at least once or twice through the year. As I say, great fun. At the end you have a party with a lot of strategy, teasing and memories. Here's a
picture or two of one of this years gifts - click 
on the pictures to make larger if you dare. May I introduce you to the Mooning Santa. He was NOT the most coveted prize. OK maybe he was!
The gift I brought was a small water fountain. I thought for sure at least two people might have wanted it - one in particular. This would have been a sure bet last year, however her guy surprised her with her dream of an Aquarium which I think they said was a 130 gallon TANK. As MFB said - you could swim in it. I filed this miscalculation under "Go big or stay home".
The gift I took home was something I was iffy about when I tore into the wrapping. However, this is my second evening reclining with it. It's a inexpensive massage chair pad with heat (the link is an expensive one). The massage and the heat works. Pretty darn nice gang, thanks!!!
It was a great visit. All the "kids" are growing up and only one is still in high school. One of the kids was out in Alberta for several months this year and he's home now. One of the other kids is going out to Vancouver in a couple of weeks so it was so good to see everyone so happy in a time of transition. I'm feeling old all of a sudden.
We did have a little drama though. We only have one large tin of Tim Hortons coffee left. We left our shopping for Timmy's too late. On Christmas Eve I left MFB while he was getting fitted fora new pair of hockey skates one of his Christmas presents and headed out to pick up one of the boys. Now any of you Canadians reading this know Tim Hortons closes up around 3:00pm on Christmas Eve and doesn't open till Boxing Day. Even with my contact at Tim's I couldn't get even a small tin of gold coffee. OH NO!! We had a happy ending, though. On our drive home on Christmas Day our research told us there was one Duty Free that would be open for currency exchange and GST rebate and we knew there was a Timmy's there. It was OPEN, they had large tins of coffee. All is right with the world and we got everything (except my family) we wanted for Christmas.
Message to MFB : See what happens when you wear your Toronto Maple Leafs sweater? Your team beats the Minnesota Wild!!
MFB's family numbers more than mine and rather than every person exchanging a gift with everyone we have what I refer to as a "Gift Fight". It's a lot of fun. How it works is everyone brings a $20 gift, then we draw numbers. The first person opens a gift, the second person has the choice of "stealing" the gift or choosing one from the pile. The next person can steal any gift or open one and so on. If your gift is stolen you can steal or open another and any gift can be stolen only twice. The first year we brought a gift that was the hit of the party and everyone wanted it. When all was said and done an email with a picture of the victor reclining in his "chair in a bag" with a beer in his head was sent tauntingly to his sister at least once or twice through the year. As I say, great fun. At the end you have a party with a lot of strategy, teasing and memories. Here's a
picture or two of one of this years gifts - click 
on the pictures to make larger if you dare. May I introduce you to the Mooning Santa. He was NOT the most coveted prize. OK maybe he was!The gift I brought was a small water fountain. I thought for sure at least two people might have wanted it - one in particular. This would have been a sure bet last year, however her guy surprised her with her dream of an Aquarium which I think they said was a 130 gallon TANK. As MFB said - you could swim in it. I filed this miscalculation under "Go big or stay home".
The gift I took home was something I was iffy about when I tore into the wrapping. However, this is my second evening reclining with it. It's a inexpensive massage chair pad with heat (the link is an expensive one). The massage and the heat works. Pretty darn nice gang, thanks!!!
It was a great visit. All the "kids" are growing up and only one is still in high school. One of the kids was out in Alberta for several months this year and he's home now. One of the other kids is going out to Vancouver in a couple of weeks so it was so good to see everyone so happy in a time of transition. I'm feeling old all of a sudden.
We did have a little drama though. We only have one large tin of Tim Hortons coffee left. We left our shopping for Timmy's too late. On Christmas Eve I left MFB while he was getting fitted for
Message to MFB : See what happens when you wear your Toronto Maple Leafs sweater? Your team beats the Minnesota Wild!!
Labels: Christmas, Tim Hortons
posted by barbp | 10:04 PM
9 Comments:
How great to hear that you had such a fantastic time over the holidays! Your "Gift Fights" sound like the absolutely perfect idea, how great - and I *so* love that Santa, what a scream! And you even got some of your goodie coffee - now, can it get any better than that? ;)
What a fun time. My husband has a little waterfall thingie something like the one you linked to. I hate going into his office when it's on. It makes me run to the little girls' room. *laugh* He loves it and isn't as suggesta(i?)ble as I am.
That sounds like a lot of fun - I love those gift exchanges! :0) Yikes - what a close call on the coffee! (You know, you do have a knitting friend up there, who would be happy to send you some gold, just something to keep in mind!) :0)
Sounds like great fun! Naughty Santa! He do something else, does he? You made a nice score in the present fight though! Heat and massage are two great things. Glad you got your Tim's <:)
Barb---yikes--I am "challenged" and cannot do the survey....will you still love me? We do the same gift exchange in my family--I got a massage chair thing and my husband got a S'more maker (just what my fat arse needs)! My birthday is coming...January 1st--I will post christmas pics later. Kisses friend.
You mean, Miles Gilbert Horton! An ex-Sabre as well. I love the coffee, too.
And, my family has a singing Billy Bass that keeps making the rounds at Christmas. NO ONE wants that; I'll trade you a mooning Santa anyday!
My daughter begged to go to Timmy's after church on Christmas. Too bad it was closed.
I always look for small gifts to give my employees - 30 of them. A Timmy's opened in the mall where our office is located and I made up gift bags of cans of TH's hot chocolate mix and marshmallows. What a hit they were,
Li
Well, you know... If you ever need some Timmy's, just let me know and I can send some your way!
Hope you had a good trip! Any snow where you were?
Tim Hortons! I remember in college if you traveled west enough, or south, you'd bump into quite a few of these, thought none near where I'm from.
I've seen that mooning santa quite a bit this season. Must be this years thing :)
Glad you had happy holiday!
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