A Neighborhood Yankee Swap
My neighbor Dolphin lives and teaches in Alaska now. She brought bear meat for the Christmas Eve Yankee Swap.
Cloe brought a woven cotton/silk scarf from her recent travels in Thailand, where she ate silkworms and grasshoppers and worked on behalf of rural villagers’ right to sustainable culture.
There was salmon caviar on the kitchen table for those who were sick of Christmas stolen and cookies with jam filled centers.
Speaking of jam, my Yankee swap gift was a jar of homemade blueberry jam made my Lora, but I really wanted the mixed CD Bob made.
Rowan got Josh’s handmade mug stamped with the name “Nolan Ryan.” It was one in a series in which Josh made use of creative descriptive phrases to express his love of coffee. 
Kurt brought another tamari pourer made by potter Sarah McCarthy. It acted as the conclusion for a group gestalt that began last year when the first McCarthy tamari pourer stirred up competition and prompted a mutiny of anarchy that threatened the nature of the swap.
There was also a Chinese brocade box filled with fortune cookies, red slippers, candles, books, a Tic-Tac-Toe game, and a box of cereal thrown into the mix. A variety six-pack of beer got swapped and was being drunk quickly to avoid being swapped again. A couple of items were left behind at the end of the night – a silk leopard print blouse, a Crooked Road T-shirt, a Christmas angel mug – the start of next year’s swap, I suppose.
December 30th, 2008 1:08 am
my that sounds like fun
December 30th, 2008 2:30 am
My favorite in the photos is that someone has their shoes off!
December 30th, 2008 6:31 am
Looks like a wonderful time…our first glimpse of Cloe since her return.
December 30th, 2008 9:53 am
She’s well! What an amazing adventure she had. I went to the slide show she gave. If you look closely at the first photo you can see some of the Thai prayer bracelets on her wrists.
December 30th, 2008 1:29 pm
What fascinating object to have about. This is a global village.
December 30th, 2008 8:54 pm
What a different yankee swap.
I got a beautiful warm brown jacket from the yankee swap we were in and it was brand new. xo
December 30th, 2008 9:01 pm
Some of our stuff was new. Some was recycled and some gag gifts were also thrown in.
December 30th, 2008 10:21 pm
Bear, silkworms and grasshoppers? What kind of people do you hang around with Colleen?
…only kidding!
Happy New Year!
http://www.GreenerPastures–ACityGirlGoesCountry.blogspot.com
December 31st, 2008 3:10 am
gosh, this sounds like fun! what was on the CD you wanted?
December 31st, 2008 7:20 am
It was a mixed CD. The only musician I can remember right now was Edie Brickell. There were others I liked too.
January 6th, 2009 11:40 am
Hi Colleen,
It was a wonderful night – great write up!
Kurt has the CD – I’ll copy it for you soon.
Lora
January 6th, 2009 12:30 pm
Thanks, Lora!