Have a White Elephant Christmas

"Uncle Palpatine". We got this guy in a 2009  White Elephant and haven't been able to get rid of him since. he keeps coming back to us!

We had a White Elephant Gift Exchange where I work today, but I was told it would be a serious exchange (and a very competitive one where people were trying to be the most sought after gift...for under $10, and to have a strategy to get the best gift in the end).

The only White Elephant gift exchanges I know are filled with the goofy stuff no one would want, so I was torn on what to do. After some conspiring with Olivia, we decided on a nice picture frame with a Dugan White Elephant twist.

We included my picture from 10th Grade where I was one of the last kids in school still sporting a mullet in 1992. The picture was autographed.


It was so much fun to see the levels of revelation in the faces of my co-workers as they shifted from that's-an-odd-picture-to-give to Hey-that-looks-like-Jerry and finally Oh-No-he-autographed-it!

It's easy to take ourselves too seriously these days, but there are ways to be goofy and not get yourself fired from your job in the process. It just so happens that I took a picture of myself in 10th Grade with a mullet that I was able to use 19 years later. Liv and I are already thinking about what to do for next year's White Elephant.

Alternate autograph phrases included:

• Now, your wall is complete.
• I make this frame look goooood!
• Best wishes, The Mullet.
• The Mullet, 1989-1992. R.I.P.
• To Wong Fu, thanks fo...oh, wrong frame.

In the end, we kept it simple.