last friday, jason hosted a get-together with friends for christmas celebrations and rock band (of course).
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he made egg nog cookies. they are magical things.
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egg nog (with optional rum) was served in very fancy glasses. we have a lot of fancy glassware, by the way. many options.
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the host always spends time in the fridge. (right?)
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after dan arrived (in his very festive vest), jason kicked off the christmas celebration with a “yankee” gift exchange.
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everyone brought a gift that cost $1 or less.
![IMG_8847](https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7157/6552034295_4f3ee65fa3_z.jpg)
during round one, after everyone had drawn a number, each player picked a gift from the pile — no unwrapping yet! player #2 could either keep their gift from the center or trade with a previous player (#1, in this case), and so on. i like this round because it is fun to create speculation about what a gift might be!
![IMG_8848](https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7146/6552037185_2a61bb7248_z.jpg)
![IMG_8849](https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7030/6552039909_e4eb8cf6f9_z.jpg)
i actually think it’s fun to do this mystery-gift-trading round once or twice more, but jason decided to skip right to round two.
![IMG_8850](https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7150/6552042787_03784ee1ea_z.jpg)
to kick off round two, player #1 unwraps his or her gift. then player #2 unwraps his or her gift, and can either keep it or force player #1 to exchange. player #3 can keep, or trade with one of the previous players. and this continues through all of the players…
![IMG_8851](https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7007/6552045693_6737af2da8_z.jpg)
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but, in the end, player #1 get final choice! he or she can claim whichever gift, of all of the gifts, that he or she desires.
![IMG_8856](https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7169/6552054995_2f82023a56_z.jpg)
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during our exchange, melissa was player #1. she picked a kazoo out of the gifts and at the very end of the game — she wanted that kazoo back!
![IMG_8859](https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7032/6552060043_44e05e59a2_z.jpg)
i actually traded a yoda-shaped usb flash drive for this giraffe bust. i want the whole collection of miniature busts!
after this, some friends stayed to enjoy santa’s slay with us, then we played rock band until about 2 a.m. — another fun evening!
i’m wishing a very happy holiday season for you and your friends, too. 🙂
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