The exchanging of the gifts...

How does your family exchange Christmas gifts? Does everyone give to everyone? Do you just do kid exchanges? Do you give family gifts? Do you rotate names? Or draw names? We draw names. Every year around Halloween in both families. In the Rencher family it has become a bit of a joke because we have one person in the family who nobody wants to draw. We will call him or her P. Mad for our purposes today. When we get ready to draw my sibling group which includes in-laws, go into panic mode. Some start chanting their mantra "Not P. Mad. Not P. Mad. " Over and over. Others close their eyes and their lips start moving in a silent prayer. Some hold their breath. The wives (who let's face it is doing the shopping for both gifts) threaten husbands that they had better not draw P. Mad or they are dead meat! Then comes the inevitable moment when someone opens their little slip of paper and the shout out "Nooooooo!" rings throughout the house as they fall to their knees. I have actually seen my sweet brother Andrew cheat and throw this name back in the bowl! It is getting bad people. Every year people voice their philosophies of how to beat the system. "Go first", "Draw 2 and play eanie meanie," "Try to read through the paper","Bribe Alli to put the name in after they have drawn" (that might be a good side business Alli!) Whatever the tactics mine seems to be faulty because I swear I have had him 3 out of the last 4 years and I think that fourth year Dave had him!

I have to be honest though. It is not as bad as everyone thinks. He is not as picky as he was in the past. It has become kind of fun for me to give him joke gifts first (I think I stole that from Nate and Paul). So one year he got a bowling ball complete with a bowling bag! He was dying thinking I really did get him that as a gift! Precious expression on that one! One year he got a sweet framed 8x10 picture of me. It was honestly what he asked for, I swear.

Here is a very blurry picture of him getting the picture of me. Look how happy he is. Isn't it great I blurred the picture so you can't recognize him? It was a great photo of me! My brothers actually dressed me for this photo.

What should I get him this year? Is it bad that I know what the funny gift will be but not the real one?

On the flip side. Everyone wants P. Mad to get their name because 2 years ago when he had me, his wife (oops I totally typed her name, that would so give it away) told him he had to actually get my the gift without her help. Needless to say Christmas day came and P. Mad kept trying to convince us all to wait on the sibling exchange. You see HE HAD NO GIFT FOR ME! Ha-ha. I totally thought he was joking but he honestly didn't. I actually found it all pretty funny and I wasn't upset at all. Probably because I knew that I would have mocking power on this one forever! Well P. Mad felt so bad that he went out the very next day and bought everything on my list I had sent him. It was Great! So now everyone hopes that he gets their name and that he forgets to get the gift!