The hat

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Every Christmas my family and many of my parents' friends play a gift game at our party. Everyone brings a gift worth approximately $10. We put all the gifts in a pile under the tree and everyone draws a number out of a hat. Whoever draws number 1 goes first. This is the unlucky number to have. That first person picks a gift and opens it. The second person has to choose, they can either open another gift or steal the first person's gift. If they steal, the first person has to open another gift. The third person can steal either of the opened gifts or open a new one. This keeps going until all gifts are opened. The person with the last number gets to choose from all of the gifts that have been opened or end the game by opening the last gift. We have about 25 people playing every year and it really gets fun. Weeks before Christmas my husband and I start shopping for the perfect gift for this game. Everyone wants the gift that they brought to be the "fought-over" gift, the one that gets repeatedly stolen. And, of course, if nothing else interests you then you simply steal the gift that you brought. This year's big gift was a warm hat my mom had bought. Nearly everyone had the hat at one point and my mom took a picture every time it was stolen. I think toward the end of the game we were all fighting for it just to get our picture taken in it. With many other great gifts up for grabs, including tools, Christmas decorations, even money, the hat was heavily pursued. I had the hat twice and as things came to an end, at the last minute...... it was grabbed again. My cousin, Ray ended up with it and the rest of us were forced to accept what we were left holding. So... I wonder what I should bring next year......