[chuckinca]

At home in Lakeport, CA. Drove home last night from Christmas Dinner at my wife's sister's ranch near Winters, CA. 2 1/2 hour drive in dark, intermittent rain and the last hour and a half thru the mountains. Could have stayed at my wife's mother's house for the second night in a row but decided our 3 cats needed some company.

There were about 20 adult relatives and 6 great nephews and nieces ages 7 to 1. Adults all brought one $20 gift each for the annual white elephant gift exchange where all the gifts are put on a table and numbers are drawn to determine order that the gifts are taken. Gift can be taken from the table or can be stolen from an already opened gift that someone has. Only two steals allowed for any one gift. I was #4 to pick and got a pair of women's vibrating slippers that I was stuck with because nobody wanted to steal them; my wife was #14 and she made the second and final steal of a set of screw drivers, wrenches and flashlights from our nephews wife. She wanted to take the $20 Lowe's gift card from our niece's hubby but she couldn't keep it quiet and he told our niece to do the second steal of it from him before my wife had her turn.

Then came gifts for the kids and the boxes and paper started flying; each kid got about ten presents from their aunts, uncles, grandmas and grandpas.

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