So before Christmas this year, our young marrieds class decided to have a White Elephant Gift exchange party. We both had never been to a “real” one of these, just a gift exchange at school where everyone is forced to bring in some sort of junk in the correct price range. At the one for the young marrieds, each person brought in one gift that was more of a joke gift. You could either open a new gift and chance being stuck with it, or you could steal a gift that had already been opened. A gift could be stolen 2 times before it went dead and was stuck with that person.

Needless to say, Grant and I were a little bit hesitant about this. Most people were going to just find things from their house and regift, but all of our things were in the storage unit in Searcy, AR. So, we decided that our only hope was to rely on the thrift stores in our area. I think we went to 2 or 3, but ended up getting everything from one.

At first, we were looking for a set of horrible Christmas sweaters we could give a couple so they could match, or even some for us to wear there just because it would be funny, but the thrift stores were greatly lacking, so I assume other people had already bought them out … tear.

So, for our first gift we could a snow globe from the year 2000 and a star wars VHS box set. They were both in mint condition.

Here you can see a snow globe, but ours looked different. The one we had found was originally $30.00 since it had the old price tag on it. It came in the original box, and it had the letters 2000 with champagne glasses in large blocky ceramic sculptures inside. It was VERY old school ugly, and honestly pointless, but it made us laugh so it was one item that we decided to get.

The star wars set was in perfect condition, and when we bought it hoped that Shea and Anthony Amaro would get our gift because I think that they like Star Wars. Also, after all of the gifts had been picked Anthony even came over to look at the box set and was impressed that we got it for $1.50.

Then our Second gift that we gave away was the worst! Of course, it was the first gift picked out of all of them because of Grant’s interesting wrapping job. Grant wrapped the gifts in the obituaries and comics from the newspaper and topped it all off with CAT5 cable to hold the multiple parcels together.

Here is one of the games we found that we thought just looked funny. We have never played it, but figured it would be funny.

Here is the next game that we found at the thrift store which also looked priceless to give!

Then the last but certainly not the least!! I found this stashed in the corner of the thrift store shelf, and it is not a very cool gift. One of the girls, Joy who is a nurse picked our gift first and was completely grossed out because she actually knew 100% what it was used for. We also couldn’t assure her that is wasn’t used because we didn’t know. But since she was the first to pick up any gift, at the very end she picked something else and wasn’t stuck with it. It was kind of cool because the Sitz Bath was the gift not to get at the party which made everything fun. It also had some funny jokes affiliated with it throughout the night.

So over all, I think that the thrift stores treated us well in our search for horrible junk that we could give people for this occasion!

We received a pair of boxing gloves that Grant actually liked, and some Computer programming books that Deacon gave away that were left over from his schooling.

That same week my work was having the same type of gift exchange,but you were supposed to get a nicer gift give away, but one could still steal gifts.

I gave a Starbucks gift set close to this because, one I was being lazy and bought it on the cheap at Marshalls, and two everyone at my work LOVES coffee. So, it seemed like a winner. At this work party, there were 3 other Starbucks gifts. One Gift Card, my box set, and another gift card with some coffee. Everyone was going after those and trying to steal them back, but I was able to steal a throw blanket.

Here is the picture of the throw blanket that I got. I was very happy with it. It is a down alternative blanket, and this is now the second throw I own and was very happy with it. I went in expecting a Sitz Bath,but I got a nice blanket. Low expectations are sometimes good.

Then I got to work before Christmas and received this from the owners of the company I work for which was really nice. I have never been a huge smelly soap person,but I am looking forward to trying some of them. I also already spent the gift card on a sweater and two other nice shirts.

I LOVE THRIFTING, but since Grant and I are on a budget, we have been trying to not buy anything which includes thrifting. When Simon was in town, he needed some clothes, so this was a good excuse to go as well. We went to two different thrift stores that we like here in Austin, and I would have to say that we found a pretty good haul. I got 3 banana republic shirts, 1 hollister t-shirt, 2 express shirts, an awesome pair of indigo shoes, and an amazing pair of jeans.

The jeans are Brand 7 for all mankind which I knew was a very nice brand, but since they fit great I figured why not branch out and buy my first ever pair of skinny jeans. So I bought these jeans for $6.99.

After a few days of wearing them, I was wondering how expensive this brand was… come to find out this pair of jeans brand new costs $155.00… I could never pay this much for jeans, but it made me very excited to own such a nice pair of jeans!

http://www.7forallmankind.com/store/productdetails.aspx?productid=1001&colorid=101

For Thanksgiving this year, we had a very laid back, fun, and family filled event. It was planned pretty last mintue because none of knew what this week would hold since Tanya’s pregnancy was up in the air. So, in the end, we ended up having this awesome celebration with Tanya, Wilson, Mia, Ally, Emily, Shea, Anthony, Simon, Grant, and myself. The men decided that they wanted to eat steak, the females had chicken, and then everyone else brought different kinds of sides, and the rest of the time we played games, ate, talked, and cooed over Emi-chan!

We picked up all of the meats on the way to Tanya and Wilson’s here is Grant’s Steak that they grilled at Shea and Anthony’s house.

Tanya and Wilson provided their home, their beverages, AMAZING cranberry fluff, and Mashed potatoes.

Here you can see Anthony’s Steak and Ally ready to go and get some food. Anthony and Shea provided their grill, and two different casseroles.

Grant and I brought the meats, 2 pies, and my favorite wine that we brought to Thanksgiving this year. It is a 2008 Saracco Moscato D’Asti Wine.

Here you can see Tanya drinking now that she is allowed… woot the baby is out.

I think this is a picture of Antony’s Steak which I heard was also Great!

Ally and me just chilling… She ate some of my food, but more than anything wanted to see what was going on.

Mia and ally wanted to join the fun! they love being involved with whatever is going on.

Finally me holding Emi-chan, I was trying to not hog her so much, but I could just watch her for hours, even when she is not really doing anything.

Simon sporting his new shirt from the thrift store holding Emi-chan.

Here you can see Emi-chan sleeping. She was so chill that whole time it was awesome!