This year we (my siblings, their spouses, and I) decided to change the Christmas gifting game and go the Secret Santa route. We established the rules - a certain dollar figure, spouses couldn't get spouses, you couldn't get yourself, everyone had to email their wish list to everyone else by a certain date, and last by not least...who you have is to remain a secret.
We decided to pull names in Vegas over Thanksgiving. I wrote out all 7 names on individual pieces of paper at The Grand Lux in The Venetian. I then handed over the papers to my mother who monitored the process. You had to pull your name, then hand your paper back to my mother so she could determine if it was a "legal" pull, then she would hand it back to you so that you could see who you would be consumed with buying gifts for over the next month (cuz we all know that would be your one true mission).
Needless to say, I was appauled to see that as soon as my siblings and their respective spouses pulled their respective names, their VERY first reaction was to share their pulls. Really people? I mean you can't keep a secret? I was then told there are not secrets between spouses. Lame! I already felt at a huge disadvantage if I decided to try to figure out who has who because they were all already one step ahead knowing automatically who at least one other person had. So not cool. Yes, I know I sound like a total whiner, by the way.
Now on to the list making. I don't remember in what order the lists came out, but I do know that my older sister, Cathy, decided she was the designated approver or disapprover of all lists. This started with our brother's Eddie list. He sent out a 2 item list. The two items conveniently happened to exactly hit our dollar limit. She told him he must add more items to the list. He had a fit and didn't understand why. I had to explain to him that he might as well go out and buy himself those two items and then send whomever has him the receipt with a note saying, "pay me back, b*tch." I think he then saw our perspective. He then sent out a modified list with all kitchen items (he loves to cook) and Cathy kinda approved his second list, but she was still a bit annoyed because his list was void of variety. No worries, Cathy approved all the rest of our lists. Craig tried to get crafty and send his "preapproved" over the weekend, but Cathy still approved it once she read it. Nobody gets anything past Cathy, crazy kids.
The next day (or the day after that), Linda called me after finally catching up on her emails and announced that she thinks Cathy is confused about whose name she pulled and that she is very certain that the person who pulled Eddie's name was quite thankful for his original list. I asked Linda if that meant she had Eddie and she said, "I may or may not." This became our standard joke throughout the remaining weeks.
At one point Eddie slipped letting me know he had Jay, so that one I knew. He also sorta slipped and let me know that his wife, April, had me, but he recovered it so quickly that I wasn't sure if I had misunderstood. Basically, Eddie is a big blabbermouth.
So, at that point, I knew Linda had Eddie and Eddie had Jay.
Cathy called me during all of this to tell me that I had wrongly lead Jay to believe I had Eddie. I had done no such thing. I am terrible at misleading people - I have a smirk that gives me away immediately, so I wouldn't even have attempted it. I then confronted Jay about this malicious lie and he said that he told Cathy something that I had said about my person and SHE decided that had to mean I had Eddie. Ohhhh...nice spinner, Cathy.
So, my dad declared Wednesday, 12/16 as being the day we had to have all our wrapped gifts ready to be shipped to Chicago, so it was during this whole fiasco that Jay confessed that he had April. I actually saw one of the big presents and assumed he had Craig (Linda's husband) because Craig had asked for tools and in my head tools are big. When I said, "Ooooh, I know who you have..." He said, "Oh like it wasn't obviously with this big thing that April wanted." Oh...hahaha
Then, Jay decided to make a chart. In the end, he figured I had to one of two people and when he said one of the names, I smirked. The thing with my uncontrollable smirking is that sometimes it happens even when I'm innocent and people think I'm guilty. Jay took my smirk to mean I had that person - Cathy - and that helped him fill out the rest of the chart and voila - he was done and was 100% sure he was right even though I knew he was wrong.
Somewhere in here, I got an email from my aunt - the one whose house we were staying at. She wanted to know who the perfume was for so they could wrap it for me. I wrote her back that I was pretty sure the perfume was for me from my Secret Santa. Ooops. Now I was sure it was April because Eddie and April live in Washington DC and were not coming to Chicago for Christmas, so of course they would have it shipped directly to Chicago unwrapped. Later, I wasn't so sure because Eddie denied it and my mom made some comment. I decided not to make a chart which is very uncompetitive of me, I must say.
So, that brings us to Christmas Eve night and THE BIG REVEAL. Jay and Craig decide to lay $5 on the line and present their respective charts. Linda decided she wanted to reveal a chart too, but for bragging rights and not for money. The funny thing is that Craig remembered in the last 5 minutes that I had pulled Linda's name. You see, he saw her name through the paper when I pulled her name and I confirmed it when he said I know who you have. He never mentioned it to her since (hmmm...apparently spouses can have secrets, ya'll) and so Linda didn't believe him and actually decided I had somebody else when she made her chart. The end result = nobody's chart was right so we did a pretty good job keeping our secrets secret PLUS we had a great time doing it.
Eddie ----> Jay
Jay ----> April
April ----> Kim
Kim ----> Linda
Linda ----> Eddie
Craig ----> Cathy
Cathy ----> Craig
We decided to pull names in Vegas over Thanksgiving. I wrote out all 7 names on individual pieces of paper at The Grand Lux in The Venetian. I then handed over the papers to my mother who monitored the process. You had to pull your name, then hand your paper back to my mother so she could determine if it was a "legal" pull, then she would hand it back to you so that you could see who you would be consumed with buying gifts for over the next month (cuz we all know that would be your one true mission).
Needless to say, I was appauled to see that as soon as my siblings and their respective spouses pulled their respective names, their VERY first reaction was to share their pulls. Really people? I mean you can't keep a secret? I was then told there are not secrets between spouses. Lame! I already felt at a huge disadvantage if I decided to try to figure out who has who because they were all already one step ahead knowing automatically who at least one other person had. So not cool. Yes, I know I sound like a total whiner, by the way.
Now on to the list making. I don't remember in what order the lists came out, but I do know that my older sister, Cathy, decided she was the designated approver or disapprover of all lists. This started with our brother's Eddie list. He sent out a 2 item list. The two items conveniently happened to exactly hit our dollar limit. She told him he must add more items to the list. He had a fit and didn't understand why. I had to explain to him that he might as well go out and buy himself those two items and then send whomever has him the receipt with a note saying, "pay me back, b*tch." I think he then saw our perspective. He then sent out a modified list with all kitchen items (he loves to cook) and Cathy kinda approved his second list, but she was still a bit annoyed because his list was void of variety. No worries, Cathy approved all the rest of our lists. Craig tried to get crafty and send his "preapproved" over the weekend, but Cathy still approved it once she read it. Nobody gets anything past Cathy, crazy kids.
The next day (or the day after that), Linda called me after finally catching up on her emails and announced that she thinks Cathy is confused about whose name she pulled and that she is very certain that the person who pulled Eddie's name was quite thankful for his original list. I asked Linda if that meant she had Eddie and she said, "I may or may not." This became our standard joke throughout the remaining weeks.
At one point Eddie slipped letting me know he had Jay, so that one I knew. He also sorta slipped and let me know that his wife, April, had me, but he recovered it so quickly that I wasn't sure if I had misunderstood. Basically, Eddie is a big blabbermouth.
So, at that point, I knew Linda had Eddie and Eddie had Jay.
Cathy called me during all of this to tell me that I had wrongly lead Jay to believe I had Eddie. I had done no such thing. I am terrible at misleading people - I have a smirk that gives me away immediately, so I wouldn't even have attempted it. I then confronted Jay about this malicious lie and he said that he told Cathy something that I had said about my person and SHE decided that had to mean I had Eddie. Ohhhh...nice spinner, Cathy.
So, my dad declared Wednesday, 12/16 as being the day we had to have all our wrapped gifts ready to be shipped to Chicago, so it was during this whole fiasco that Jay confessed that he had April. I actually saw one of the big presents and assumed he had Craig (Linda's husband) because Craig had asked for tools and in my head tools are big. When I said, "Ooooh, I know who you have..." He said, "Oh like it wasn't obviously with this big thing that April wanted." Oh...hahaha
Then, Jay decided to make a chart. In the end, he figured I had to one of two people and when he said one of the names, I smirked. The thing with my uncontrollable smirking is that sometimes it happens even when I'm innocent and people think I'm guilty. Jay took my smirk to mean I had that person - Cathy - and that helped him fill out the rest of the chart and voila - he was done and was 100% sure he was right even though I knew he was wrong.
Somewhere in here, I got an email from my aunt - the one whose house we were staying at. She wanted to know who the perfume was for so they could wrap it for me. I wrote her back that I was pretty sure the perfume was for me from my Secret Santa. Ooops. Now I was sure it was April because Eddie and April live in Washington DC and were not coming to Chicago for Christmas, so of course they would have it shipped directly to Chicago unwrapped. Later, I wasn't so sure because Eddie denied it and my mom made some comment. I decided not to make a chart which is very uncompetitive of me, I must say.
So, that brings us to Christmas Eve night and THE BIG REVEAL. Jay and Craig decide to lay $5 on the line and present their respective charts. Linda decided she wanted to reveal a chart too, but for bragging rights and not for money. The funny thing is that Craig remembered in the last 5 minutes that I had pulled Linda's name. You see, he saw her name through the paper when I pulled her name and I confirmed it when he said I know who you have. He never mentioned it to her since (hmmm...apparently spouses can have secrets, ya'll) and so Linda didn't believe him and actually decided I had somebody else when she made her chart. The end result = nobody's chart was right so we did a pretty good job keeping our secrets secret PLUS we had a great time doing it.
Eddie ----> Jay
Jay ----> April
April ----> Kim
Kim ----> Linda
Linda ----> Eddie
Craig ----> Cathy
Cathy ----> Craig
1 comment:
I'm confused. Ha.
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