Alliances at the Yankee Swap

Ben's work has a tradition of having a semi-formal dinner and a game at their Christmas party. The game is yankee swap, but isn't like any version I have ever seen. In the middle of the room is a huge tarp/blanket covering a gigantic mass of assorted shapes. After dinner they remove the blanket to reveal the gifts. We are talking BBQ grills, bounce houses, big screen computer monitors, gps systems, ipods. . . you get the idea. It's exciting and stressful all at once.

Every couple gets a number. The first person chooses a gift from the pile. The second person can either steal a gift or choose from the pile. Each gift can only be stolen 3 times and can only be stolen once per round (a round ends when the stealing stops and someone finally picks something from the center).

Last year we won a complete Dell computer. This year I had my eye on a dual trainer elliptical/bike. We got the elliptical and of course it got stolen. Later got it again. . . stolen. Eventually it got stolen for the third time by the people sitting next to us. I was so bummed. Fortunately, we still had our eyes on the GPS system that was on it's second steal, and we currently had a fire pit set. We were discussing our strategy, when the people next to us overheard we were going for the GPS. They agreed that if we got the GPS they would trade. It was the next persons turn and Ben was peddling the fire pit set, while I was praying and they took the the set. So I came home with this:

Ah, a desperate and overweight woman's prayer answered.