I know Christmas is still a little ways away but in my family we are already starting to discuss our options for our sibling gift exchange. You see it's now become "THE BIG THING" on my side of the family. We used to the nice gifts, where everyone buys for everyone, then we all started getting married and it became way too expensive and we wanted to have some fun!
You see there are four original siblings from the blended family of a la mom and step dad getting married. Then my sis and I got married and my brother has a serious girlfriend that will be joining us for a second Christmas this year. The jury is still out on my little sister's steady, but if he is added then we will have 8. That's a heck of a lot of gifts to buy and when we came up with this idea most of us were broke as a joke college students.
One year at Thanksgiving we decided that we would do a White Elephant gift exchange. The gift had to be something you already owned, you wrapped it up, at Christmas we put them all in a circle, drew numbers and away we went. We stole, we opened and probably threw most of them away, but hey we had a blast. From there on, the sibling gift exchange has evolved each year. We come up with a theme and run with it. Each year each one of us is responsible for one gift. We come to Christmas which we always celebrate on New Year's Eve and again put them all on the floor, draw numbers and go at it. Each gift can be stolen no more than 3 times, and let me tell you. We can bargain for a good gift. Last year's gifts...
My homemade Jameson Lamp, it really works! Ignore my lovely swollen face, I'm 28 weeks pregnant!
Karin's sibling memories photo album
Scott's homemade goodies, ignore the wig....
Em's sock heat wrap...the socks were new, not used!
Brendan's golf ball dog
We've had some pretty stellar theme's....As seen on TV 2008 , Make your own gifts 2009, but this year's theme takes the cake in my opinion. You have to purchase your gift at....wait for it......A TRUCK STOP! Yep ladies and gents, you have to purchase your sibling gift exchange gift at the truck stop of your choice. It can't cost more than $10, and be creative! I can't wait! Brendan and I have been scouting to find the best truck stops in the state of Iowa and let me tell you, we have some winners!
Can you tell I'm just a bit excited! It's fun to see what everyone finds and we usually end up in tears we're laughing to hard! A little secret. Last year my brother in law made the Jameson lamp and I got it. Well he has a slight obsession with Jameson Whiskey. Well, his birthday is in November, he's getting it back!
So what are your family traditions for the holidays that you love?
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1 comment:
My step MIL and her family are doing the As seen on TV theme this year. We have talked about doing something like this in our family, but never nailed anything down. I LOVE the truck stop theme, and I-80 is the best place! :-)
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