we did the gift exchange at work today.  we do the white-elephant thing.  for those of you who do not know what that is, you all bring a wrapped gift.  you choose numbers.  whoever gets #1 picks the first gift, opens it.  #2 then can either take #1's gift or choose an unwrapped gift.  and so on.  if #10 takes #9's gift, then #9 can take anyone's gift that has opened so far or take an unwrapped gift. 

 

i bought season one of the office and office space on dvd.  i wrapped them in the waxy paper that copy paper comes in.  it was green and christmasy.  i thought i was clever.  i considered adding post-its as well.  before buying office space, i had considered buying one of those office humor type books, but when i looked at them, $15 seemed a bit much to read about how to decorate your cubicle to look like a golf course.

 

anyway, the girl who chose my gift didn't seem too excited.  and while i figured there would be some good-comedy fans amongst my co-workers, most people really just seemed to want the wine.  in fact, people began licking their wine bottles in hopes that other folks would not want to take them away once they were coated in someone else's saliva.  it didn't really work, but oh my god was it funny.

 

i got a little charger thing that is basically an enclosed power strip, so you can plug in your phone and your ipod and whatever else and it seems that they're on a little docking station.  cool, but not all that necessary.  so i asked the chick who got my gift if she'd trade what i got for either of the dvds i bought.  she said, "merry christmas! you can have 'em both!"  and she got the charger, which she said would be useful.  so - cool.  i've only watched the office like twice, but i really liked it.

 

we got to go home early, so i went to target to shop for my adopt-a-family.  i wanted to buy the girls (ages 8-14) some clothes.  i went back and forth from target to marshalls to old navy to tj maxx and back again.  i couldn't find anything that wasn't horrible ("this shirt would be fine if it weren't for the oddly placed sequins!" and "why the hell do these jeans have lace all over them???").  i finally came to the conclusion that i think the vast majority of clothing meant for pre- and early-teens are awful, so picked some of the least-awful and checked out.  i did, of course, consider getting something really awful, like the shirt that says, "i go to school for the boys" or the jeans with the cherries on them.  do the cherry-inspired clothing not weird y'all out the way they do me?  fine on a necklace around a betty page lookalike, but on a little kid?  i dunno. 

 

anyway, i ended up spending over the $40 i had alloted, as well as the $40 my co-worker entrusted to me.  chris is going to be a dear and be their santa, giving them gift cards or something else fun.  i know i was always a little bummed when i got sensible clothes for christmas, but i couldn't help wanting to buy them something essential when i doubt they have much in the way of that.

 

christmas coming has been strangely nice this year.  i was actually happy when i opened my mom's gift box today and found a couple of more ornaments for the tree.  me?  happy about ornaments?  is this what life beyond 28 is going to be like?  :D