Wow, it's December!

Hope you all had a fab Thanksgiving! We sure did. I took a few pics of our "buffet" - I'll post them when I'm at my 'puter. And of course the long weekend was wrapped up with a beautiful we-beat-Georgia-Tech bow! Oh man... I feel redeemed! Our record is AWFUL this year, but if I could only choose *one* game to win, it'd be the Tech game.

And speaking of Georgia... can you believe PETA is after UGA for its treatment of Uga? OMG. I'm a huge, huge, HUGE animal lover but PETA drives me insane. I do think some of their positions are sound, but give me a break. A robotic dog to replace Uga? First of all, NO. Second of all, Uga is arguably the most popular collegiate mascot of all time. He's been on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He's been in movies. And for the love of dogs, Uga is treated better than most humans! I've personally been INSIDE his custom dog house that he sits in during the games. It's like a doggie spa. Seriously? If this is your top "concern" right now, PETA, then I'd say things are going pretty well in the animal world. A robot dog. Seriously. You obviously DON'T get football either.

Anyway... geez. So this weekend I've got a couple of parties lined up. We've got a couples' shower we're attending for Lucky and then I'm co-hosting our annual girls' Dirty Santa party on Sunday afternoon. It's a yearly must! And that's *dirty* as in the claws come out during our gift exchange (the gifts themselves aren't dirty). I'm sure most of y'all have played this in some form or fashion, but here's how we do it...

Guests are instructed to bring a wrapped $25 gift (one worth fighting over!). These are not gag gifts and we prohibit giftcards and bath gels. Yeah, we're pretty serious about it. Also we have everyone bring a dish to share (this makes it a very inexpensive party to throw!).

For the game, we draw numbers and the rules are as follows:

• The girl who draws #1 chooses a gift to open.
• Girl #2 can either open a new gift or take #1's gift. If #2 takes #1's gift, then #1 chooses a new gift to open.
• Girl #3 can take #1 or #2's gift, or open a new gift. If, say, #3 takes #1's gift, then #1 can either take #2's gift or open a new gift. Once a gift has been stolen in a "round," it can't be stolen again till the next round (i.e. #4's turn starts the next round).

So ideally, you want the highest number because you get to go last and have the pick of ALL the gifts. I know some people play where #1 gets to go again at the end, but we don't do that. If you draw #1, tough shit. Better luck next year! And a lot of people also put a limit on the number of times any one gift can be stolen. We don't do that either (except within a round). It can get pretty heated - it's so fun - especially being all girls. There's usually one or two gifts that get stolen round after round and it's a fight to see who will ultimately end up with them! Good times...

Alright, off to get some more work done. Just wanted to say *hi* while I munched on my Lean Cuisine here. Back later!