Good morning from the Fagan’s and our half-lit mini Christmas tree.
What a tragic sight. But the presents under the tree make up for it, right?
We’re nearly done with our Christmas shopping! Just need a few more things for some family members. I also have to stuff Ryan’s stocking, but shopping for stocking stuffers is always so much fun!
Workout
This morning’s workout was just at sweaty as last Thursday’s gym session… probably because I did the exact same cardio circuit workout. It’s no joke!
My buns were sore for two days following the circuit last week. I blame the alternating lunge hops. They’re booty burners!
Breakfast
Today’s morning meal was a typical bowl of overnight oats, made with plain Greek yogurt, Coach’s Oats, chia seeds, milk, honey and a banana.
I ate this breakfast in front of the computer while putting together an email with some writing samples to send to a local magazine.
I’ve been trying to get in with them since we moved to Ocala and all of my emails up to this point have been unanswered. Late last night I finally received an email requesting writing samples, saying that they’re in the market for a new team of freelance writers. My fingers are crossed!
White Elephant Gifts
Last night I spent some time wrapping a couple of white elephant gifts for a Christmas party Ryan and I will be attending on Saturday.
For those of you in the dark about the whole white elephant tradition (apparently it’s most popular in North America), white elephant gifts are typically inexpensive, funny and often previously-owned.
During a white elephant gift exchange, the first person participating opens a wrapped gift of their choice. The next person can then “steal” their gift or elect to open a new gift from the pile. The person whose gift is stolen may then open a new gift or “steal” someone else’s gift and so on, until the last wrapped gift is opened.
The party we’re attending on Saturday has a $5 limit on gifts and Ryan and I put together some good little presents! The “core” of our gifts actually are decent gifts that we bought, but then we threw in a little “flavah” in the form of random (unused) crap we found around our house. Priceless!
I love white elephant gift exchanges because all too often people actually fight over someone else’s junk! I remember doing a white elephant gift exchange in high school when one of my girlfriends put together a collection of her unwanted nail polishes as her gift and people were dying over that one!
My mom and dad just went to a party last weekend and were excited when they left with a collection of different kinds of beer and a big bag of peanuts.
Questions of the Morning
- Have you ever participated in a white elephant gift exchange?
- What is the best/most hilarious/most shocking gift you’ve ever seen as part of a random gift exchange?
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I LOVE White Elephant gifts. Imagine one big blogger Christmas party and gift exchange. I’m sure the claws would come out. In a friendly way of course. 😉
This year, we are doing a gift exchange with my boyfriend’s family with “As Seen on TV” gifts. Should be hilarious!
http://www.canyoustayfordinner.com/2011/12/12/the-best-300-calorie-oatmeal-youll-ever-have/
Thought you might like to try this! you can’t eat it cold probably, but it’s a great way to get protein in the morning without meat…
My parents just had their Holiday party and my dad ended up with Butt Butter…aka non-chaffing cream for cyclists and runners…maybe I will use it? haha
I love white elephant gift exchanges! The best/ worst one was getting an ipod box…stuffed with candy. Such a letdown.
I love white elephant gifts!! We went to one 2 weeks ago and our gift was a hit….they were little tiny plats on rings…”finger food” plates!! Hysterical!!! I don’t like when people don’t get a gag gift! My hubby went to one at work and he gave the book “Everybody poops” and other people were giving giftcards!
I love white elephant gift exchanges, although we call it a Chinese Auction. We’ve been doing it for as long as I can remember, and it’s something I think about all year round. We’ve been doing it for so long now that we forget which family member has the “booby prizes” and years later it’ll resurface and we all have a really good laugh. For example, an outdoor thermometer that is a deer foot is one of them! We have a mix of nice things and junk, which is funny because our family is spirited enough to laugh and understand that it’s all in the luck of the draw and the way of the game!
Your tree is adorable! And I love doing white elephant gifts! They are great for some good laughs! I got a frog that ribbeted jingle bells last year!
I’ve only done white elephant once…someone brought in his framed 8×10 senior portrait, and another person brought in a 5 inch stack of unactivated gift cards from target, walmart, restaurants, etc. We all thought he had put a dollar on each one or something annoying, but at the end after everyone was fighting for the gift cards, he told us they weren’t worth anything haha it was hysterical
I’m going to a white elephant party tomorrow! It’s my first one, so I’m not sure if I got the right type of gift, but I tried! Maybe next year I’ll have the hang of it better.
What do you get for Ryan’s stocking? This is my first Christmas living with my boyfriend, so I have a stocking to stuff and need ideas!
I go to a white elephant party every year. The worst gift I ever went home with was adult diapers. This year, I got a slap chop and was pretty excited about it.
We play white elephant on Christmas eve with my whole extended family every year and it’s one of my favorite parts of the holiday! My mom always likes to buy awkward things like thongs and other scandalous lady items. Last year, my eleven year old male cousin was the one to pick her package! The look on his face and the look on his MOM’s face were priceless!
We do white elephant every year with both my mom’s family and my dad’s. It’s so much fun. My mom’s side actually has a pile of rubber dog poo that gets passed around. If you end up with it, you have to include it in your gift the next year. There have been some creative ways to disguise it! My contribution this year is the game doggy doo. I think it’s hilarious and I have a feeling my cousin’s kids might actually want it!
Good luck with the freelance!
I’ve never heard of the term white elephant, but it sounds similar to a Chinese gift exchange which I’ve done.Except, the Chinese gift exchange isn’t necessarily “junk” gifts lol.
We always do white elephant with Keith’s side of the family but with slightly different rules. The gift has to be new with a $25 limit. But inevitably someone always goes over the price limit…like this year I ended up with a magic bullet! SCORE!
One year for our “Stinky Santa” swap, I brought in a hideous candy bowl that I’d gotten stuck with at a different yankee swap a year earlier.
This thing was UGLY.
My boss won it, and we jokingly googled it together to see what it was worth.
Joke was on me, the dumb thing was worth over $600!
Once I ended up with the first season DVD of The Office (US version). Awesome!
Another time I worked at a company for 3 years and every year, the same gifts would resurface to be part of the gift exchange. So hilarious!
i love white elephant parties!! they’re so much fun. i went to one with my friends last yr and apparently didnt get the memo that all the gifts were dirty haha…i brought peppermint bark and something from crate and barrel. hah yay me
Our family white elephant game is this Saturday. As the host of the party, I always throw in a gag gift. Whoever gets stuck wtih the gag gift at the end actually gets a really nice gift like a gift card to Olive Garden or something. This year I am putting together a gift of gag worthy foods. I found spotted dick pudding in our grocery store. It looks hideous and is sure to get lots of laughs.
We actually call them Yankee Swaps in New England! The worst gift I ever got was a chia pet and a Sponge Bob toilet seat…Neither were ever put to use!
One year I went to a party that had a sexy white elephant exchange that they called “Dirty Santa” (social workers really know how to let their hair down–yes this was a work party! ha!). No joke, the gift that everyone fought over was a vagina coloring book! Cracked me up. I ended up with light up penis earrings. The whole evening was one of the most awkward and hilarious situations I’ve ever experienced!
I wrapped a box of wine for my company’s holiday party last week and people were FIGHTING over it. All I could think as I watched was “dude…it’s boxed wine.” I was pretty pleased with myself for bringing the most fought over gift though!
At our work party we did a white elephant exchange and someone brought a betta fish! the look on the girl’s face when she opened it was priceless!
My extended family all does a white elephant exchange at Christmas (think 40-50 people all in ONE room!!) Anyway, the weirdest things that have come to the white elephant, in no particular order:
1. Thigh master
2. Jingle jock/thong (yes, just as you might imagine)
3. Flirty fir singing Christmas tree
*The best gifts are the junky ones, like the above mentioned, when paired w/ lotto tickets! I mean, you get some junk but then you have an opportunity for some money!!
I forgot — A USED BREASTPUMP (someone really found that at a Salvation Army)
Our group of friends does this every year and most of the gfts are too x rated to even list here but some of those have also been absolutely hilarious!!! On the cleaner side, one year my husband stole The Clapper! Yep, he really wanted it! Another year there was a 50 dollar lb bag of popcorn and he also stole that!
We have a white elephant party next week! I am bringing the singing Justin Bieber toothbrush as a gift 🙂 I also might add some toothpaste to the gift as well, lol
I can’t wait to see the flavah thrown into your gifts!!!
I participated in a white elephant party this year and received a “Justin Beiber” singing toothbrush. 🙂 I also brought a piggy-shaped shower cap as my gift.
oh that’s pretty funny! we do something called a “Yankee Swap” at my office each year which basically incorporates the stealing but comes in the form of new gifts up to a $20 limit. we try to throw in some crazy or funny gifts as well. it’s also so much fun stealing! i might have stolen from my boss last year. thankfully, i’m still employed. 😉
I have played White Elephant once and it is similar if not exactly the same as “Dirty Santa.” It’s not my favorite, but it is fun to see all of the exchanging going on. I think the part I don’t like about it is ending up with the gift that there was no thought put into it. Like wrapping a stick. This year at our church Christmas party it was a little more exciting…..I ended up with a Starbucks plastic cup that I have been wanting! I left happy….:)
See one time I got confused about gift exchanges like this. In high school we had a cheerleading christmas party with a “dirty santa” gift exchange. Apparently we were supposed to bring good gifts and people fight over and “steal” them with the same rules you described. I ended up with a scarf and nice pair of gloves. Too bad I brought a weird dolphin figurine (regifted from a legit secret santa exchange-it was horrible) that someone got stuck with…lol.
We just went to White Elephant exchange with my husband’s co-workers last Friday night and everyone ended up fighting over my gift. I made a “People of Wal-Mart ” calendar with pictures from the website, but put one of his co-workers who is always complaining about Wal-Mart as Mr. November.
His wife swore she was going to fight to the death to take it home and she finally bribed someone with five dollars to get it.
http://pinterest.com/pin/259801472223448223/
UMMM julie!! i just found you on pinterist!! woooww haha yyou guys look great!!
LOVE white elephant! My extended family did white elephant gifts with a $25 limit last year and had a BALL. It’s so much more fun (and cost effective) than regular gifts!
Best White Elephant gift exchange gift ever: A snuggie, a box of wine and a pack of adult diapers. Your weekend is planned out, dont even have to get off the couch!
My fiance’s family does a white elephant gift exchange every year. I’ve been participating for 7 years now and every time I always get something practical like a mini-crock pot or a small george foreman grill or some kitchen utensils. The fiance, however, ends up with the world’s weirdest gifts. He’s received things like a huge Finding Nemo blanket 3 years ago, a gift set of self tanners 2 years ago, and last year he got a “personal head massage machine” paired with a snow globe from Disney World (we live in Michigan….). Hilarious! Honestly, his family’s white elephant gift exchanges are my fav part of Christmas!
I’ve never participated in a white elephant gift exchange, but I’ve always wanted to do. I’ve only done Secret Santa’s where you know the person you have to buy for!
Ha! Yes my husband’s family used to do this every year. One year the fight was over a duck that said “Aflac!” One guy brought a white, dirty painter’s bucket of satsumas that his sister had given him as his Christmas present that year. A teacher in the group brought a bag of about 25 coffee christmas mugs her students had given her. I always think it is just good fun to see what the presents are and to see people literally argue and fight over “crap.” lol
Usually everyone fights over the alcohol! I actually have a White Elephant exchange today and I brought a change counting jar. I’m pretty sure I got that last year in one of these…
Oh my goodness, last year was the first time my family did a white elephant exchange! My mom wound up with a binky, I got a calendar with different chickens for every month, my aunt got bacon flavored crickets, and everybody was fighting over a poop log! OH! AND –this one was classic!– my great aunt got boob stress balls! It was hilarious!! Haha, they’re stress balls that look like boobs and they’re really squishy. It was the best Christmas ever!
In high school, we used to have white elephant gift exchanges with the girls I was in choir with. Most of the stuff was pretty nice though..I remember girls fighting over the nicest makeup bag or Bath and Body Works stuff!
we have a white elephant gift exchange every year with my family and the gag gift that gets passed around for m year to year is a fruit cake we have to sign our names and the year on the bottom of the box we have had the same fruit cake for 5 years now and it has been stored in the shed and the storage building eewww dont eat it just keep re gifting it. i love the white elephant game
I have been to a few white elephant parties and most of the time the gifts that were being stolen the most were anything out of the ordinary. Usually something you don’t see every day that is still somewhat useful. With a gift limit of only $10, I was amaze at all the weird and wacky things I could get while keeping my bank account happy. I found this online store while doing a Google search containing many things that are just perfect for a white elephant party. The link is below and hopefully this helps with your future white elephant gift parties!
http://www.thinkfuntoys.com/blog/funny-white-elephant-gift-ideas/
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