Monday, December 06, 2004
Secret Holiday Pals!!
Happy Holidays, right? :-)
Well, I am one of the members of our school's "Hospitality Committee" (some places call it a "Sunshine Club"). Typically we collect $$ at the beginning of the school year (voluntary contributions) and then provide a plant and/or card when there is a death in an immediate family, a hospitalization of one of our staff members, wedding, baby, etc. We also plan our two staff parties each year, one in December and one in June.
This year, we decided to do Secret Holiday Pals. I spearheaded this project. It's simple: anyone who's interested gives me their name ... then I take all of the names, match them up, and give each participant the name of someone who they will secretly give gifts to during the holiday season. We put a cap of $25 (total) on spending, and asked that one gift be given each week for four weeks. We also asked that the gift giver include a small hint as to their identity each week.
When I was talking with Kate about planning this activity, I said that I will probably not be able to participate because I can't choose someone to secretly buy gifts for me. Since Kate really wanted me to participate, though, we worked it out so that she took half of the names (including my name) and I took half of the names (including her name), and we each assigned secret pals within those groups.
Well ... this is turning out to be a LOT of fun!! I won't tell you anything about the person to whom I'm giving Secret Pal gifts (because, if that person reads this blog, he or she will figure it out!!) But I'll tell you about the gifts that MY secret pal is giving me.
Last week, I didn't get a gift, and was sad ... but I figured that the person might not have known that Kate helped me assign the names, and maybe they were mad at me and decided not to get me anything. (Isn't it amazing where my mind takes me!?) But, then I found the gift in my mailbox this morning. (The person had left it there on Friday during the day ... and we're supposed to check our mailboxes once in the morning and once in the afternoon, but I never get anything worth checking twice a day for, so I don't ... so I missed it on Friday.) Anyway ... the note on the front said something about enjoying a good movie this weekend (my first thought was, "How did this person KNOW that I was going to a movie this weekend!!??" ... I saw Christmas with the Kranks.) Then, the gift was a gift certificate to Blockbusters and two bags of "Light" microwave popcorn!!
Now, someone must know me pretty well, because how often do we sit around in professional settings and talk about movies? I LOVE movies and try to see as many as possible. But really ... how would one of my randomly assigned colleagues know THAT? Hmmm.... So ... of course I started analyzing (obsessively) about who the person could be (this was only the first week of four!!) And, in the process, I noticed that I might be driving Kate crazy with all of my analyzing (everyone who has ever been driven crazy by my analyzing, raise your hand! :-D) Sooooooo ... I decided to BLOG about it, and hopefully this will help me vent so that I don't have to analyze at Kate. :-)
FYI ... Kate is the one on the far right:
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