Christmas game : angels and mortals

each year, as Christmas approaches.. a small group of my colleagues will gather to play this game. its actually a secret Santa game but we call our version angels and mortals.

 

rules of the game – we set aside a budget, draw lots to determine everyone’s mortal (together with 3 items on their wish list based on the budget) and then for weeks leading up to Christmas, the angel has to secretly do nice things for the mortal.

 

everybody keeps their mortal a secret from each other while others throw out decoys and claim credit for the stuff they didn’t do. on the day of exchange, we usually do a small cash bet to guess their angels and the winners split the money.

 

so.. or those on my instagram (follow me at cherieladie), you might have noticed me posting thank you notes to my angel and the sweet stuff that I have received. we are also quite competitive between the mortals and compare/show off the gifts/love/act of kindness that we have received on a daily basis in an email chain for the group so it was actually quite funny/hilarious on a daily basis. and because all of us are seated near each other, its actually quite hard to act without being noticed.

 

here’s the love I got!

she actually spelt my name wrong. I don’t think it was a genuine mistake or a decoy!

I posted a question on this and asked how cotton buds could keep the blues away?! heh heh.

 

for 2 years in a row, I got xueli as my mortal and it was tough cos I had to vary my tricks and tactics just so.. she couldn’t tell its me again. she was also seated at the end of the cubicle aisle and to get to her was v difficult because I would pass by everyone in the process and get noticed. the good thing was she was my team mate (same product category) so I still had some ‘business’ in appearing at her desk area. I had loads of prep work done.. bought a whole bunch of snacks, got someone to draw angels on post it notes to attach with the little gifts/snacks so my handwriting will not be identified.

 

at the same time plotting my secret Santa strategies, I was sussing out my own angel based on the hints and items I received.

I didn’t take pictures of the items I left out but those post it notes were the remnants that stayed behind thereafter and xueli posted them on her instagram. lol.

 

so, it was revelation day yesterday since a lot of them are going on leave and we did the gift exchange. I had to say, my mortal isn’t very innovative. she asked for the exact same stuff for 2 years in a row, save for one item. -_-”

 

and my boss had to beat me to it in getting the item she wanted so I had to roll out plan B. unfortunately it was very hard so I ended up getting something that’s more than twice the budget because I couldn’t bring myself to buy something ugly that I wouldn’t use myself and I was running out of time.

 

and so, I took along a decoy present for the exchange (to throw everyone off) because the laptop bag was rather obvious even when its wrapped (due to the size) and we each threw in 5 bucks for the guess. turns out, it was a tough year and everyone thought their angel was someone else and only 3 person got their guesses right and I was one of them! yay to extra $ for lunch! 

 

ripped these images off my Jess’ FB!

me and my mortal with the real present.

the rest of the girls. Rachel who was my angel.was on urgent leave, unfortunately. everyone delighted with their gifts.the present (laptop bag), the mortal (xueli) and me. I seriously look like a fat whale these days.

 

and here’s what I got!

I asked for 1. gelish polish in bright red color, 2. instax minis and 3. a chunky necklace and I got the item that I was most lemming for! the wrapper was what the polishes came in so I used it as a picture backdrop.

 

and I immediately put my gift into good use!

changed out my nail color to red for the festive celebrations with a little glitter added! and yes, in case you are wondering, I have the acetone & cotton buds (to remove the gelish or nail polish) in my office while one of my colleague had all the rest of the tools (orange stick, cuticle pusher, nail file, nail buffer, gelish base/top coat + glitter and a led lamp) so while we were clearing ads late into the night, I started working on my nails at the same time.

 

what ya think? nice?

 

I can’t wait for the huge stash of gel polishes that I recently bought to arrive so that I could start playing with nail art.

 

really love the gift and thank u Rachel!