Categories: Food

The [White] Elephant in the Room

Ladies and gentlemen, what you see above is probably the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. For those of you with your minds in the gutters (me) or those of you who did not read where it says “bottle stopper,” that is actually a wine bottle stopper, not…whatever you thought it was.

My Junior League committee did a White Elephant swap last night at our first meeting of this year, and while the wine stopper clearly was the show-stealer, the high heel ice traction slip-ons were a close second. Dear parents of the world: we don’t need things like this and will never use them, no matter how functional you think they are. Save your money or buy Lululemon gift certificates.

Afterwards, we went to Brasserie Julien, around the corner. It’s sort of the official post-meeting spot, and we were shocked that were the only JL people there. Why do those servers look so confused? Because out of four of us, three of us presented our phones with a Foursquare special for a free drink. Clearly, they loved us.

We got an order of moules frites and this other yummy thing with bread and prosciutto for the table.

As far as that whole fitness thing, yesterday was a rest day, which fit in perfectly with my plans to sleep in and then stay out until 12:30 on a work night. I had big plans of getting my tempo run in this morning before work, but I think we know what happened with that. Tonight.

As for my Strong Sexy Spring Runners challenge, I took one of Jaz’s abs classes Tuesday morning. It was a 30-minute class with lots of ab work (shocking in an abs class, I know) on the mat and cardio bursts of burpees, mountain climbers and jumping jacks in between.

Some of the sit-ups and moves hurt my back, but I’m good at modifying some of the exercises based on a few things Jess taught me, and Jaz promises as my core gets stronger, the lower back pain will go away. No formal challenge here, but I am trying to remember to do a plank a day to help my back and keep strengthening my core.

What’s the weirdest gift you’ve ever received, and do you call it White Elephant or Yankee Exchange, like my lovely Southern co-chair, Shannon?

Theodora Blanchfield

View Comments

  • For my workplace Yankee Swap I received an expired box of women's vitamins and 5 lottery tickets. The only saving grace was that I won $14 off of the lottery tickets. I think I'm going to just skip it next year.

  • A friend of a friend LOVES Brasserie Julien (and has lots of events there, which is how I've heard about it), but I haven't been yet. Will need to give it a try!

  • My office did the White Elephant thing at our holiday party too, I think it's always good for a laugh! Someone received a pair of salt and pepper shakers of the male torso that were rather erotic looking. It was hysterical because one of the older women got it and she was completely embarrassed! The Cock Block is pretty good too though :)

    • @Alex: Everyone brings funny gifts they don't want, and swap them. You pick numbers and you can steal from other people. It's actually pretty fun!

  • I love doing a White Elephant/Yankee Swap! That "cock blocker" wine stopper is pretty hysterical, I must say. Who would think to get such a thing? It's almost something that belongs more at a Bachelorette Party than as an Xmas gift.

  • White elephant...I received a VS bra - in about a 34 DDD size. Needless to say, I'm not even close. The woman who brought that gift kept trying to convince me that it was such a great gift because it was new, it was VS, etc. I left it behind at the party.

  • I have been to a few white elephant parties and most of the time the gifts that were being stolen the most were anything out of the ordinary. Usually something you don’t see every day that is still somewhat useful. With a gift limit of only $10, I was amaze at all the weird and wacky things I could get while keeping my bank account happy. I found this online store while doing a Google search containing many things that are just perfect for a white elephant party. The link is below and hopefully this helps with your future white elephant gift parties!
    http://www.thinkfuntoys.com/blog/funny-white-elephant-gift-ideas/

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Theodora Blanchfield

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