Rock, Paper, Scissors: Who am I Buying Christmas For?

As the kids get older, some of our Christmas traditions have to be modified accordingly. Tonight's yearly foray into family gift getting was one of the more memorable.

For the last several years, we have drawn names out of a hat to see who gets to buy a present for which family member. We have seven of us in our family, so as the kids get older, it gets more difficult to figure out how we're going to do it, especially because we all go shopping in the same store!

This year we couldn't figure out who got to pick out of the hat (it was actually a bowl this time) first, so we all sat around the table and played rock, paper, scissors. Our right hands competed against the left hands of the family member at our right, and vice versa. If the opposing hand beat your hand, you pulled that hand out, and your remaining hand (unless you lost both hands) competed against the remaining hand(s) of the family member to your left and right.

It actually worked pretty well. The hand left standing--mine--got to draw a name first, and then we went around the table clockwise. That was the easy part.

The price limit this year, taking into consideration the effects of inflation, was $15. The time limit once we entered the doors of the Payson, Utah Wal Mart was 30 minutes. And we couldn't buy anything that was made in China....yeah, right ;-)

We did pretty well with the price limit. I went with my oldest and youngest sons. Surprisingly all three of us knew exactly what we wanted to get for one daughter, one son, and my wife, and we were done in 15 minutes. But the rest of them?...I could have done all the rest of my Christmas shopping by the time they got done.

But my daughter said it was my fault that they took so long, and my wife said it's because I don't hunt and fix things like most men do (it's because I read and blog like a drunken sailor). I told her she could have bought me some tools as a hint...