parkfam xmas - remixed

so every year, my cousins on my dad's side (well, those of us who are still in ny, which is actually most of us) get together for a christmas party. i think this year will be the 5th year running, and it's the one time of the year that i see some of my cousins (and their kids).

i don't recall when this started, but i think from the first year, there was a tradition of gift-giving (not uncommon for xmas) - so each family would bring a gift for each child, and there would be a torrent of wrapping paper carnage as the kids tore through the piles of gifts, unearthing a whole lot of nerf guns, pillow pets, and the like.

now that there are 15 kids and counting in the bunch, and since we're in a recession, someone came up with this bright idea last year that we should do some sort of organized name-drawing, and that each child would get one gift. (the older kids got together and came up with a consolidated protest, since the thought of 8 gifts becoming one gift is pretty lame - but they were overruled by the payers of said gifts).

now it's true, this whole process favored families with more kids than those with less (or none, in my case), since every child got a gift from every family. being childless, most everyone brought a gift for me (i was getting to the point where i could count on a scarf, a starbucks gift card, and something from williams sonoma). while that wasn't really necessary, it was nice to be included - and did i mention i live for gift exchanges? it's my favorite time of the year.

so upon the changing of the rules for 2011, it was decided that being childless, i was not a participant any longer. to which i was sad. =( so my cousin ellen decided to make me work for my participation - apparently i now became the coordinator of the gift exchange.

fast forward to november - i was unaware that i was actually supposed to coordinate the shenanigans until a few days ago. whoops. so i sent out some emails to see if everyone remembered whose names they drew - lest we show up and have christmas disaster because some kid is left out and doesn't get a present.

it's a poor replacement of actually getting gifts for the kids, which i genuinely enjoyed. but the parents are right - the kids get a ton of gifts every year and they really don't need that kind of extravagence. (i personally thought it would be nice if we implemented a secret santa amongst the adults as well, but i don't think that's going to happen)

so i'm not sure when this event is going to happen, but it's another sign that the holidays are approaching. and fast. good thing christmas corner is almost finished. i really want to get a tree this year - i say this every year and every year i forget to buy one of those fake tree things...