White Elephant....why's it called that anyway?

We just had our department Christmas party and I was actually surprised at how much fun it was for once.

Usually it's that customary sit around with a stick stuck up your you-know-what kind of feeling, with that small talk about someones dead dog, and sick grandma that everyone knows is more fake than the breasts on 42nd street.

Last year we ordered Italian food and while it was good, it left a sinking-let-me-go-take-a-nap feeling in my stomach and I'll be darned if I did too much work after wards.

This year ordered from Chipolte's and while their burritos are as big as your head, this time I paced myself and ate mostly chips and dip, and I'm now staring at this overloaded burrito thinking about how it'll last me through this impending weekend snow storm.

Someone made a chili dip that was phenomenal, it was so simple but so good. Nothing more than a layer of warmed cream cheese, then a layer of Hormel chili (no beans) and then a layer of cheese. For those lactose intolerant it's probably a toilet disaster waiting to happen but for the likes of me who couldn't live without cheese it was like floating on a cloud.

I was so happy that she made chili this time around she usually bakes 'desert dry' chocolate chip cookies that she and others swear by, I could probably bet my house that deep down people just don't want to hurt her feelings. She even brings them out the next day as if the first day of them wasn't dry enough! I think I'll convince her to stick with the chili for the next function and lay off the cookies.

But I'm a fine one to talk, 1 hour before our party I ran my big behind to BJ's and picked up a tin of Almond Roca as my contribution, but I didn't feel to badly as she was the only one who really made anything home made.

We played the customary "White Elephant" gift exchange but of course we all picked numbers BEFORE the rules were recreated and the poor newbies got gipped...I guess they'll learn next year....as long as we're all still here. (They keep promising us no more lay offs and then sooner then they can blink, there goes someone else).

Anyhoo, back to White Elephant, our rules are EVERYONE picks a number out of a box, the number dictates the order in which you step up and pick a gift. After you pick the gift you decided if you want to keep it or if you want to steal someones gift. Our rules stated that the whom ever picked the #1 got to decided at the END if they wanted to keep their gift or steal from ALL the now opened gifts.

So basically either the first or last number was the best number to have. I picked a $15 Starbucks card and someone nabbed it but they gave me a cool gift in exchange, I got the movie "The Hangover" which I've wanted to see since it came out, so you know what I'll be doing as the snow blows in this weekend!!! In my head all I can see is the scene where the baby is in the carrier and gets whacked on the head by the taxi car door....I'm dying just thinking about it! I don't usually like that kind of humor but the trailer sure looked funny.



Of course the bottle of Citroen vodka kept getting stolen every chance since it was opened which leads me to believe I secretly work with a bunch of alcoholics, they were even talking about how you should keep it in the freezer as it goes down smoother that way. I mean I knew this....or at least I always wondered why Big C kept the Vodka in the freezer but I don't think I'd ever declare I had such knowledge!!!

The only bad part of the party was at the end.....there 20 of us in the department virtually split down the middle 10 guys, 10 girls and all of a sudden I looked around as we were clearing up and there wasn't a guy to be found. I thought that really was piss poor rude!!! REALLY RUDE....some thing will never change, but I don't think even Big C would have walked out like that. Rightfully so he would have stayed to brown nose and look like the perfect gentleman but heck by that point does it matter, at least he helped!