White Elephant

Last night, we had our first ever party at this house.  Cris’ friend Chris from Mount Vernon, his VISTA teammates and their boyfriends came over for a White Elephant Christmas party.  Our old creaky, tipping house looked festive and smelled great.  Cris made Wassail for the first time, and I turned over a new leaf and decided to bake.  I made some pretty good banana bread, if I do say so myself (and yes, I know it’s an easy thing to make).  We had so much food!  Cowboy caviar, little smokies, homemade spinach dip, cheesy bean croissants, topsy turvey apple pie, fried plantains. . . much of our party involved eating!  We played a few rounds of Telephone Pictionary.  If you’ve never played, you should.  Cris and I were pretty excited about the gifts we were putting into the pile (and almost wanted them for ourselves) – I put in some enormous St. Patty’s day beer steins , and Cris made a Holiday Survival Kit - that included toilet paper, tums, stool softener, Menudo for a hangover cure and detox tea.  The pile of white elephant gifts were pretty fun – a hamburger piggy bank, , a book about Seguin, a mini megaphone, a Nerf-gun dart shooter.  I ended up with a slinky, a napping kitten calendar, and a starter plant pot, and Cris with some awesome light-up shot glasses.  After presents, we pretty much became little kids, and played.

Cris often wonders why I have so many random things lying around, or why I would go to the store and come out with a pack of fake mustaches.  My response is always, “You never know when these will come in handy.” My mantra finally paid off.  I set up a bunch of Cowboy and Indian toys, and the boys used the Nerf shooter and my disc gun to knock them down.  The mustaches came out, and we all felt a little more intelligent and respectable.  Jessica’s boyfriend Ryan read a Christmas story through the megaphone, and Chris #2 showed off his planking skills by attempting to plank his white elephant gift. 

Chris #2 planking the hamburger bank

Storytime with Ryan and his megaphone 

 Whose mustache is the real one?

 Cris and Chris testing out the rave-style shot glasses

Chris #2 also taught us about Horse-manning.  Which we had never heard of, but of course had to try. 

  

It was a small, but really fun party. And by the end of the night, after all that food and all that delicious Rum Wassail, we all needed a little something from Cris’ holiday survival kit.