Happy Holidays from ActiveProspect

Traditions are a big part of what makes holidays special, and an ActiveProspect Christmas party is not complete without a White Elephant gift exchange. Our crowdsourcing friends at Wikipedia describe a White Elephant party thus:

…each participant supplies one wrapped gift. The gifts are placed in a central location, and participants determine in what order they will take turns selecting them. The first person opens a wrapped gift and the turn ends. On subsequent turns, each person can open a new present or gets the choice to “steal” another person’s unwrapped gift. When a person’s gift is stolen, that person chooses another wrapped gift to open. The game is over when the last person has taken their turn.

Our version follows the “two steal” variant, which limits the number of times a gift can be pilfered with impunity. The new wrinkle this year was a co-worker knowledge trivia contest to determine the gift opening order. We were given a list of interesting facts that we were challenged to match to their owner. For example, learned that one person is a dual U.S./Irish citizen, one was an extra in the Jodie Foster movie “Little Man Tate” and another dodged bullet fire from drug lords while riding in a helicopter.

You think you know people…

My first pick from the gift pile was a Belgian abbey style ale, but that was highly coveted and changed hands several times. Between a torrent of conversations spawned by the newly revealed secrets and the fast and furious exchange of oddball gifts, it was 100 percent ActiveProspect.

Best wishes for a happy and prosperous new year from the party people, Minecraft characters, robots and elves at ActiveProspect.