Club Holiday Party

(This is totally late, but don't say anything.)
One of my favorite things about the holidays are the parties.  Unfortunately for me, I ended up working retail again this holiday season and thus missed out on a lot of them.  But there was one I refused to miss.  My sewing club's holiday party/luncheon.  They only have three big luncheons each year.  One's in December, the second is the Fashion Show, and the third is in the Spring, just before we have summer break.  If you miss one, you miss all the fun!

And all the Turtle icecream cake.

Every year, the luncheon is located in one of the premier restaurants around the city of Chicago.  Alahambra, The culinary school of Chicago, and many many others.  The food is always great and the people even better.
This year, we had a new events coordinator and she organized some fun games and activities for us to participate in whilst chatting with other crafty ladies.  I was more than a little excited.  Especially for the White Elephant game.  That one's always a big hit at my friends' holiday parties because it invites people to alarm or pleasantly surprise people with random crap that they picked out of the back of their closet or the bargain bin at a store.
White Elephant is a chance to get closer to the people you call friend with a series of hearty WTF moments and then, if you see that someone's gotten something you'd prefer to have, you can trade!  It's everything that was great about lunchtime in grammar school.  Mysterious items from a mysterious benefactor, then trading for your preferred stock.  Everyone has fun.

To date the wildest random white elephant gifts I've seen have been:
A picture of someone else's kid
Tangled Christmas Lights
An Actual White Elephant statue
Prank Candy (It tasted like spoiled fish)
Harry Potter Bertie Botts Beans
A coat from a Thrift store- that turned out to have a $50 bill hiding in the lining of the pockets
A pickle
Soap that looked and smelled exactly like an Oreo (You know what happened with that one, don't you?)
A board game called 'What The F***'
A silver necklace featuring a ...well, it was a pendant... but let's say, I'm glad I didn't get that one.  But we had a lot of fun laugh with the poor embarrassed soul who did get it.

Well the day of the club's luncheon, one of the ladies decided that the white elephant should function more like...a weird grab bag and everyone should come up and explain why they gave what they gave.  It really threw off the groove for White Elephant.  Instead of being primarily silly and fun, it became awkward and uncomfortable.
Most people had taken about as much time in picking their gift as they do picking their fingerprints.  For me, the event became downright painful when the person who picked my little basket of embellishments, ribbon, faux leather, and lace blatantly yelled that she didn't want any more 'junk' in her house.  It almost made me wish I hadn't participated.  Thankfully, there was a silver lining.  When it was my turn to pick a gift, I ended up one of the cutest random gifts of all.  You know, because I like stuff that looks like other stuff.

Wow!  A giant spool of yarn!

NOPE!  It's a Linen scented candle

What a cute little hat!

Wait!  The bottom looks like sushi rolls!  It's not a hat at all!

My White Elephant pick came from Rhonda Buss who, apparently, is another person who appreciates the trend of having stuff that looks like other stuff.  I got a candle that looks like a giant spool of thread, has a great fresh scent and when the wax is all burned out, I can use it to tuck my pins and needles in.  The little hat, that looks alarmingly like a little hat I was eyeballing in the store the other day, is actually a pin cushion.  You can flip it over so that it looks like a box of sushi with a bow on the side.  I loved my gift.

Maybe next year, we can play a different holiday game that makes everyone as happy as I was by the end.