We have a large family. There are 40 of us from my siblings down to their grandchildren. To us the most important thing is getting together. We started a tradition of drawing names for Christmas years ago. We all enjoy it and it takes a lot of pressure off just jamming through a list to get everyone something. This way, we can each focus on one person for the year.
Our daughter is of the age now to be in charge of picking names and assigning them to people. This is a big deal to her and she takes this task quite seriously. She's 7, after all.
We take a poll of who is in for the year and then we put their names in a hat.
She drew them, called everyone to tell them.
That was six months ago.
Oops - we didn't write it down. BIG oops.
Five forgot who they had. I forgot two others were in.
We asked for everyone who did remember to send me their names via email, without "reply all." It's fun when it's a secret.
Most replied. Two did not and I forgot they were in. This means who they picked seemed to be unassigned and they were unassigned.
We drew from the ones left - that we were aware of.
Called/emailed.
Oops - email this morning - "We're in and we have....."
CRUD!
Double crud, someone was drawn twice because I couldn't read my own writing!
Triple crud, emailed the "leftover" list again with new names.
One more time for one because we have one confusing situation:
Soozi, Susan and Susie. Again, my penmanship came into play.
I'm exhausted. It shouldn't be this hard. Next year, I'll post it here so we have a reference. You all can remind me when someone forgets who they drew.
It's a reminder of those famous words uttered by a favorite fat man donning a red suit, "Making a list and checking it twice!"
How do you do it for the holidays with a big list?
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