I didn't go to work yesterday because my sore throat had gotten so bad that just talking made me gag. I don't know why. I wasn't nauseous, but my throat felt really thick...both swollen and mucusy. By last night, my throat has stopped hurting, but it became very itchy and I started coughing. Now I'm losing my voice. This is not fun!

Last Friday was the day my workplace had its Christmas party. We were supposed to bring a gift for the Greedy Gift Exchange and some kind of refreshment. I made meatballs the night before. I was worried that they would taste terrible, but I was surprised that a lot of people asked me how to make them! I'm not much of a cook, but I do surprise myself sometimes. I just winged those meatballs and they happened to be very tasty.

For the gift exchange, we brought a game called Imaginiff and something called a Car Buddy. The Car Buddy had a cooler that could hold 12 cans of your favorite beverage, a 12 cd holder, a compass and flashlight, and probably more stuff, but I can't remember.

If you've never participated in a greedy gift exchange, here's what happens:

Everyone brings a gift if they want to participate in the exchange...unless someone is super generous and brings extras for those who forgot to bring one. Do not label your gift with who it's from, but it might be nice to label if it's a gift that meant specifically for a male or a female.

Someone makes number cards, starting with 1, putting a number on each card until there are enough cards for each person participating to draw one.

It's not necessary to keep your number a secret.

Number 1 goes first. He will pick any gift that he wants (typically it has to be the first gift you touch so you don't go shaking or squishing the gifts for something good). He unwraps it in front of everyone. He keeps the gift whether he likes it or not.

Number 2 goes next. He has the option of either stealing the gift that Number 1 just opened, or he can pick an unopened gift from the pile. If he chooses to steal Number 1's gift, then Number 1 will have to choose another gift from the pile and open it in front of everyone. If he chooses to pick an unopened gift, he has to open it in front of everyone.

Number 3 goes next. He can pick from Number 1 or 2's opened gifts (but can choose only one), or he can pick an unopened gift).

Get the pattern?

It can be a really boring game if no one decides to steal. But it can get really interesting and long if there is a lot of people participating who don't mind stealing. The person who was just stolen from can steal from another person, who can steal from another person, and it just keeps going until someone decides to pick an unopened gift from the pile.

Ultimately, you want to be Number 1 or the very last person to go. The very last person to choose knows what all of the gifts are except for the very last unopened gift. That's when things get interesting.

At the very end of the game, Number 1 may choose to keep his gift or pick from any of the other gifts. If he decides to keep his gift, the game's over. If he decides to trade with someone, the person has no choice but to receive Number 1's gift and to give up his own. Then the game's over.

One of the main rules to keep the game a little shorter is that if you've already had a gift stolen from you twice, you cannot be stolen from again (unless Number 1 trades at the end) and you're stuck with whatever you have.

The rules can be changed, of course. This is just the way we play it. This game requires a lot of maturity. Some people get offended when they get stolen from. It's not fun to steal someone's gift just because they don't like it. But you can do that, if you really want to... it kinda spoils the fun, though.

I almost took home a bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream, but the last person to go stole it from me, so I stole from someone else and brought home with me a nice lap tray. I use it at night when I can't sleep. I sit up and curl my legs under the covers and do word puzzles until I get sleepy. I'm so glad I picked it!

I don't remember what DH brought home. I remember there was a Season 1 Bones dvd floating around, but it was stolen from him. Lemme go ask him. Oh yeah. He got a double dvd set of "Ocean's 12" and "Syriana". So he didn't do to badly, either.

The party was fun and everyone was a good sport.

Sunday, we went to my old church for the Sunday morning service. My mom was playing in the handbell choir and she wanted us to see her. I really miss playing handbells. She actually played the bells I used to play. Apparently they'd only had 3 or 4 rehearsals before that morning, so they didn't sound the best. The director doesn't even play handbells and all but 1 or maybe 2 of the people in the choir were brand new to playing the bells, so they didn't sound very good. I figured out most of the reasons why.

They swung the bells wrong, which meant that they weren't as loud, which meant that the higher pitched bells were not heard. Therefore, most of the time, you couldn't hear the melody and couldn't tell what the song was. Fortunately, they were all songs that I had played while I was in the choir, so I knew.

They didn't deaden their bells on their shoulders. So the bells that weren't supposed to be ringing were just resonating and clashing with the rest of the bells. Thus, creating a mish mash of noises. One particular player had a pin on her lapel and when she went to lay the bell on her shoulder it made a very loud clanging noise. Not good for the song and especially not good for that poor little bell.

Lastly, no one had their bells in order! I guess if you've been playing that way for a while, it would work, but I think it would help a great deal if the bells were in ascending order so that if you're playing a scale, it would be like a wave of hands playing. It probably looks better that way and I know when I played, I watched and listened to the people beside me to know when to play next if I wasn't looking at my music.

I would be more than willing to drive down there once or twice a week to direct the handbells, but I don't know if I'd be welcome there.

The sermon was about Simeon when God promised him that he'd not die before he saw the Messiah. I love that story. I had Wendy & Mary's "Simeon's Lullaby" playing through my head the entire time. It's a beautiful song. The words and harmony give me goosebumps whenever I listen to it. My mom and I had sang it together acappella a year or two ago and it would've been more than appropriate to be sung again for this sermon, but again, I don't think my presence would've been welcome in that way. Anyway, you can hear the song if you look up "Wendy & Mary" on iTunes. It's the first song that pops up. I own the album that it's from and I highly recommend the entire thing.

After church, we went back to my parents' house for my immediate family's Christmas get-together. All 9 of us ate together and opened gifts. Everyone bought gifts for everyone. It was pretty cool. I'm not going to list everything that I brought home with me, but everything was wonderful.

This afternoon, I picked up my last gift from my parents' house. They'd ordered it and it just came.

It was Cat-opoly! It's like Monopoly, just with a theme of cats. It's so cute. I'm going to try and get DH to play it with me when we get home.

DH had a doctor appointment this morning, but I'll have to write about that some other time.

Happy Hump Day!

--last || next--

LAST FIVE
New Location - October 18, 2007
Be Still, My Soul - September 17, 2007
Just leave already - September 16, 2007
Changes...I hate them (well, most of them, anyway) - September 14, 2007
Funky Love - September 12, 2007

*HUGS* TOTAL! give tootiturtle more *HUGS*
Get hugs of your own