Every year at Christmas, my VP will get all of the Team Leaders together for a little gift exchange. There's about 50 of us and the gifts range from the not so good, to freaking outstanding!
We had our gift exchange today. They had Olive Garden & cupcakes brought in. Yes, I got a red velvet cupcake. They're my favorite!!
It's hard to have a strategy when other members of your department are not there. We all draw #'s and pick a gift once your # is called. But, if you get a "good" gift, it can be stolen. A gift can be "stolen" three times before it's frozen.
The department managers normally take one for the team and save one of their people. But my DM was suck at home due to the icy roads. So, I had to go it alone.
Let me start with the gift I did not get, a beautiful new Coach purse. If I had to guess, I'd put the retail value around $250. But that gift was "safe" by the time my # was drawn.
I always feel bad when I steal from other people, but last year, no one cared when they took 2 different iPods from me. So this year, I went for the steal and picked the wii. Too bad I only owned it for 2 minutes.
There was nothing out there worth stealing, so I opted to open another gift. Bummer, I got a Christmas DVD. Then, a while later one of the other DM's stepped up to save me, but there was still nothing to steal, so I tried to pick the package that would contain an iPod. Again, I didn't find it, but actually ended up with a gift I liked.
Everyone else probably thought it was silly, but the first thing I thought of was, "ooooh....I can use this at the Music City Bowl!" I got mini cashmere warmers from Restoration Hardware.
I've come to realize I suck when it comes to picking good gifts, but I'm thankful my company even gives us the opportunity to exchange gifts.
Here's a quick rundown of some of the better gifts:
Coach purse
wii
xbox 360
iPad
iPod touch
iPod classic
$100 gft card
$50 gift card
$50 Best Buy gift card
Salon Visage spa day
Kitchen Aid standing mixer
$300 grill
GPS
And some of the not so good one's:
garden gnome
jelly of the month
random lotion & body wash
snail lawn ornament (it was broken before the exchange was over)
dog toys
random hoodie
blanket (not even a snuggie)
Beast, from Beauty & the Beast doll
Something about this just seems wrong. They should suprise everyone with bad gifts at the end with a gift card or something.
ReplyDeleteThose are some great gifts! Our limit at work is usually $20, so usually the best gift is when someone throws in a Kroger giftcard or lottery tickets(if they are winners). Everything else pretty much sucks!
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