long lost Squirrely

It's late and my kids are in bed. I should be folding laundry and getting ready for my in-laws to come, but I don't wanna. Aaron is playing basketball and I just feel like doing nothing. I just finished watching last night's Survivor finale. disappointing.

I am about to pop in The Family Stone for the 10th time this season and I believe it will satisfy. Before I do, though, I wanted to share an idea. I hope Jane doesn't mind because it's really her [mom's] idea to begin with. I am rambling?

A few nights ago at our Girls Night Out, we got to talking.. in fact, that's all we did really. Talk. Laugh. Eat. It was so much fun. But Jane told us about a party her mom threw-- a white elephant gift exchange. It was a party for couples, but the wives had special instructions: They had to wrap their husband's favorite item (secretly) and bring it as a white elephant gift. Obviously, the husbands had no idea... and when someone else opened up their favorite thing, they freaked out and fought for them back. I thought this was brilliant.

That got me thinking about WHAT I would try to wrap up and give away of Aaron's. It has to be subtle enough that they don't know it's a joke. His Spanish scriptures would be too obvious. His tennis racket would be too hard to wrap. Maybe his swiss army knife? If only I had let him keep his Squirrely.

Story: During the first month or so of our marriage, we were going through our old things.. basically a few boxes of items our parents didn't want to store anymore. Once you get married, you have to be responsible for those kinds of things. Aaron's box wasn't big. Mission stuff, old basketball trophies, etc. But at the top of his box was a raggedy old stuffed SQUIRREL.. a little nasty thing that happened to be missing one eye. He seemed excited to see it and affectionately called it Squirrely. I did NOT think he was serious. Apparently, he was. I laughed so hard and told him I wouldn't stay married to a man who loved a nasty stuffed animal. He reluctantly threw it away.

A few days later, we were having a fancy dinner with his family. I thought I would continue the teasing by announcing to his family that Aaron still hung on to his raggedy old one-eyed squirrel. I was giggling, but the rest of the table was silent. His older sister even sighed with sadness, "You mean Squirrely?" Yes. I meant Squirrely. Obviously it was a family favorite. They all took Aaron's side and told me that I was cruel and unfeeling. We haven't talked about it since. If only Squirrely was still around so I could give it away at a white elephant exchange.. too bad.

So the question is: WHAT would you give away of your husband's, if you had the opportunity? And are you up for a party to exchange them? New Years Eve is just around the corner.....