White Elephant and a Rooster

We go to a White Elephant gift exchange every year with a group of people we've met through church.

This exchange has been going on for years before 

we were even included in on it.

The inside jokes are aplenty.

There are gifts that have been donated to a "Hall of Fame" that get displayed every year.

Items like

statuette pictures of people dressed like Santa 

or the action figures that have been dressed like 

people at the party.

These people are clever.

The writing on the instructions for the gifts is usually my favorite part.

The rules are simple yet are contested every year.

A gift can be stolen only twice.

AND

If you unwrap an outfit that can be worn, you have to wear it.

There is ALWAYS the same Santa outfit in the exchange.

And Grinch boxer shorts.

And Star Trek Pez dispensers for some unknown reason.

Last year, we came home with a (for real) deer head who's antlers had been decorated with ornaments for Christmas.

It became known as Rudy.

In the days after the exchange, Rudy sat on the floor of our dining room.

Every morning as I cut through the dining room to the kitchen for coffee, Rudy scared me.

Like made-me-jump scared me.

Rudy's neck is jutted out in a 45 degree head turn

no doubt because he was thinking to himself,

"What was that?" 

3 seconds before the bullet or arrow ended its life.

Awww…now I'm all sad for Rudy.

Moving on,  

Rudy had to leave the dining room. 

He was ruining my morning routine.

So he got put on a shelf in the garage for the winter.

Too close to the garage refrigerator.

Same near-heart attack happened each time I went out to get something from the freezer.

This summer I decided to give Rudy a proper spot on the wall in the garage.

It suited him and us.

I found myself saying,

"Hey, Rudy." 

When I walked into the garage for my garden gloves or my bike.

He doesn't scare me on the wall.

I announced that I was going to regift Rudy back into the White Elephant gift exchange.

Everyone said no.

He had become part of our garage and thus, our family.

So Rudy stayed.

What does Rudy have to do with 

the title of this post?

Actually, very little.

This year at the White Elephant party, I unwrapped a rubber rooster mask and rubber rooster feet

(that looked more like a Raptor's to me.)

Also, a pair of men's pants, 

a dress shirt 

and a tie.

(Something about "ruling the roost" in the business world.)

So, referring back to the above rules, I had to put them on.

A better person could not have opened this present

(except for maybe Monte) 

because I LOVE to dress up.

I put everything on happily.

Me and Monte.
(I am the rooster)

Last week at school, McDaniel was working on a project with a partner where they had to create a product that when used would quickly change their appearance.

What better to change into than a rooster?

So she took the costume to school.

And wore it.

The teacher asked why she had a rooster costume.

McDaniel said with a disinterested shrug,

"I don't know, my parents went to some party 

and came back with a rooster costume."

Doesn't that sound sorted?

Like this-is-the-70s-and-LEGIT-weird-stuff-happened-at-parties kind of sorted?

This coming from a woman who posed for pictures wearing business attire and a rooster costume.

Cock-a-doodle-doo