The Return of Big Mouth Billy...

Yesterday family and friends came from near and far to pile in my grandparent's house to celebrate Christmas (on my father's side). It was a good time! Several years ago my grandparents changed the tone of our holiday celebration from gifts purchased for individuals to a grab bag tradition that is usually full of pranks and white elephants. Everyone brings a gift that costs less than $10 and it is placed under the tree, unlabeled in any way. Then we eat a massive amount of food before my grandfather counts heads to determine how many people are present. He prepares slips of paper with one number per slip and everyone grabs one to see in what order they get to pick a gift from under the three. It's best to be the last person to choose because you can "trade" your gift with any that another person has opened. You don't have a choice in the matter. Wouldn't you know, I drew #5 out of 25 possibilities. *sigh* Because of the crowd crunch, I had my mother choose a package for me (not knowing it was one my brother and his girlfriend had brought). I was immediately suspicious because the box smelled like food and I just KNEW it was going to be a doozy. I tore off the wrapping to discover a box labeled "The light of fire" or something close to that. I thought...oh no. Upon opening the box, I discovered a fire log, a lighter and some kind of flame accelerator. Everyone started cracking up. Fortunately I traded it for the poker set another person had opened and the fire log was passed on. I didn't keep the poker set for long though. I ended up with a redneck fishing sign (showing a fisih and dynamite) and a Jeff Foxworthy book about "There's no place like the mobile home for the holidays" (or something like that).

Since my grandparents had invited some of my father's closest friends, he had an opportunity to "regift" an item he had received several years ago from our buddy Bill. You guessed it. Big Mouth Billy...the singing fish on a plastic plaque. Dad was red in the face from laughing so hard. Bill played along, saying how he'd missed Billy and was dancing and singing along with the fish. Billy performed so often that I can still hear his songs running through my mind..."Take me to the river....Put me in the water..." Yeah, it was a good time. :) Of course, now I've got next year's gift being planned in my head. This time I'm really going to do a "redneck Christmas" gift but it's going to require some assembly... I won't reveal the details but it'll be a good one.