Last night was my work Christmas party. Last year I was on the organizing committee, and we decided to have a white elephant gift exchange. If you haven't done this before, you bring something fairly crappy (or at least unwanted) for your gift - a good way to regift something that you wouldn't actually want to give someone on purpose. Or a gag gift or something. At last year's gift exchange, I got some generic Barbie-type doll. After the official swap was over, I traded with someone else for an old fondue pot. We didn't have a decent one, despite assurances that we'd get several as wedding gifts. And I love fondue. I know who brought the fondue pot, and she thought it was a terrible gift. She had gotten it as a hand me down from her aunt or something. There was a recipe written on a card that she had included, her aunt's recipe, that called for 'Switzerland Swiss Cheese'. Heh.
The fondue pot gets a lot of use at our house, because we both go through periods of fondue addiction. We're in one right now, in fact. We had fondue for dinner twice last week (one time was during a fondue party at our house, the other time was just... Wednesday). So I was really pleased with myself last year.
This year I did possibly even better. Brian picked third, and he got a framed picture of my boss that someone had gotten in last year's swap. Ha. I'm going to display it on my desk at work, until next year when I am totally going to bring it back to the gift swap. I picked fairly far down in the order, about 2/3 of the way through. The person just before me let her young son pick and open a gift, and it was a stainless steel Cuisinart pizelle press. OMG. I love pizelles. And I do not have a pizelle press. My mom does and she always made them for Christmas when I was growing up. Yum. When my turn came up, I totally traded the little kid for the pizelle press. I was really worried that someone after me would take it, but no one did. So now, I've got a shiny new pizelle press, just in time for Christmas pizelle making! Two years in a row of awesome white elephant gifts.
5 comments:
I totally voted down the gift exchange at work this year...maybe I should re-consider. I'm just not willing to accept another ceramic candy dish!
I would have stolen the pizelle press.
I was thinking about trying to get one started this year after Christmas. My boyfriend's sister-in-law gives the worst gifts (to everyone, not just me). Like re-gifting things with her name on them and $5 presents from CVS. And I think if I knew what a pizelle press was, I would have taken it too. [Smurphy, just bring a candy dish, so if you get another you break even!]
I don't know if I should really tell you this, but... if you are a fondue addict there is something out there that would be even better for you: raclette! It's cheese, potatoes, vegies and lots of fun!!! Fondue - sorry to say this - pales incomparison!
I hate those white elephant things. If I'm going to end up with something crappy, couldn't we get it over with in less than 2 hours? Clearly, you have more skills at this sort of thing.
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