What's In Santa's Beard?

Ray and I are leaders of a community group at our church. It is a real stretch for me because to be frank, I am not a leader. I tend to be a follower AND a people pleaser. I definitely do not bring great strengths to such a role. Thankfully people have been very patient and very kind during our year and a half adjustment (OK, so it takes me a while :)

So last night was our annual Christmas gig where we have a big dinner together, music and a white elephant gift exchange. This group is of the mind that whatever gift is the craziest, someone will always top it.
I was really stressing about the party because I wanted it to be a fun event, good turnout and a fun exchange. We had about 40 plus people show so that was great. Today I am exhausted.

When it came time for our exchange we had all the gifts in a pile. We sounded a timer and everyone rushed in to grab a gift. After we unwrapped them we went around the room and everyone displayed what they got. Then 3 timers sounded as the evening went on allowing the the opportunity to trade out gifts for something better. Again the weirder gift, the better.

To give you an idea of some of the gifts brought this year and last I have listed a few of them...

Insulation from a building project
A reindeer that potties jelly beans out of his back end
An Obama chia head
A republican "party" pack - so funny by the way!
Kotex slippers (that was over the line!)
A pregnancy test with a starbucks card in it
A big batch of fudge from a monestery (I really wanted that because it is so good!)
A chunk of wood
A bag of halloween candy
Lotto tickets
Laundry detergent

I got the package with the lotto tickets. It was a holiday pack called "What's in Santa's Beard?" Yes indeed, what IS in it? 50 million perhaps? I was instantly very protective over the tickets because I thought this could be it! This could be our big break! Plus, they had put a lot of tickets in there so that was kind of fun. I had never purchased a lotto ticket so this was new territory. I was strangely excited and so I hid my tickets under one of the tables for fear someone might try to trade me. Thankfully no one caught on to my scheme and soon enough the final trades had been made.

Back home late that night I discovered I didn't have the tickets. I so upset about it to the point Ray thought maybe it was best I lost them because I had obvious issues with it :)
I had the whole family engaged in the search. Unfortunately I told the kids that if we won enough money we would go to Disneyland. Not my best parenting move but you can see why the kids had an invested interest in finding them.

If you can believe it I finally found them tucked into a folder I had brought home. I screamed, then called the family around the table and started scratchin'....

I won 2 bucks. All that stress for 2 lousy dollars. Forget getting a free coffee much less a hefty contribution to our retirement fund.

I think I have come to the conclusion that I would make a horrible gambler. Oh wait though, Power ball is today!