Be The Pigeon

12/30 update. I've been waiting for a photo to complete this post, but thought it worth sharing this gem with you while I search. OK, so I have an update on the White Elephant post below. I knew instantly when I received the lovely lightplate what I should do with it. Our good friend turned 40 recently and we attended her surprise party the other night, all dressed in black. I had to come up with the perfect gift. What a better birthday gift than a Michaelangelo's-David lightplate? But that was too normal, so I thought I'd spice it up a bit. In collusion with her sister, I was able to get a perfect picture of our friend's husband. A little crafty patchwork (yeah, that's right Carly!) and I had myself a much-improved gift! Once hubbie's mug was secured to the lightplate, the gift was completed with a clever card suggesting she could now turn him on or off whenever she likes. Ahh, sometimes pure genius just flows, what can I say?! Yeah, pure genius. Inc...

I had to wait a few days to make this post. Last Saturday we had one of the annual highlights of our year. Each year, friends of ours organize a Christmas party (adults only) for 30-40 folks. It's always lots of fun, primarily because of who gets invited. In most social groups, there's usually one or two people that are the proverbial "life of the party." Well, in ours, there's a few guys who could probably make some of the gals wet their pants laughing. It just comes naturally. Each year at this Christmas party, we participate in a white-elephant gift exchange. If you've not been fortunate enough to participate in such an exchange, everyone brings a $5-or-less gift, new or used, nice or ugly, and puts it into the pile. Many of the gifts are wrapped in very appealing paper, but veterans have learned to avoid those presents at all costs; they always conceal something you're sure to wish you'd left in the pile. As people select gifts, we all g...