Tuesday, December 9, 2008

A Dressing Room and A ruthless holiday gift tradition

Ok, first the dressing room...I love my dressing room at the Bold and Beautiful set…It’s cozy and full of really neat things. Recently I received some pretty cool holiday gifts that you can see in this photo. I spend a lot of time in my dressing room while I am at the studio and I take that time to read, relax, and get ready for the next scene. As much as I would like, I usually don’t have family visit me when I am on the set. It makes me a little nervous and so that makes it harder to concentrate! Do you ever have that problem when you are doing something and it makes a difference who is watching you from the sidelines? Or is it just me??

Ok, now the ruthless holiday gift tradition...

As the holidays draw near, I am thinking about what I can get for this neat family game we play. Our entire family usually does a holiday gift game which has caused fights and all kinds of drama! Just up my alley! It goes like this. To participate, you put in a wrapped gift worth about $20-$30. You than select a number from a hat. Your number tells you what order you get to pick a gift from the pile. The first person picks a gift and unwraps it for everyone to see. The second person gets to take that gift and send the person they took the gift from back to the gift pile to pick another gift. And so on and so on. So having a higher number is the best because you can have a pick from all the opened presents, sending that person back to the pile.

It can get very dicey when there is one thing that everyone wants. And when family heirlooms of no real retail value but sentimental value work their selves into the pile! And if we are very lucky, in the end, when everyone has their gift—for better or worse and all the drama in the world—it’s usually smiles all around!

Tell me about your family traditions and what you think of our game?!!

17 comments:

Mike© said...

I think your ruthless holiday gift tradition sounds like a lot of fun! We did that same gift exchange when I lived in the Bay Area with coworkers, and some of them became unglued when they picked a gift that was clearly not something they had bargained for.....once I received a padded toilet seat (yuck!), while a co-worker received a gift certificate to Bath and Body Works. In the end, we all had a great laugh.

sam bell said...

hey jennifer
how u doin?

i love the picture of u wearing the princess santa hat it looks great!
and the picture in ur dressing room, i can see you and rebeccas poster in the background
and i can see the gifts i sent u!
it looks like santa came early this year lol
i love ur dressing room it looks really peaceful

i like ur family game! it sounds like fun! how many people play it?

ur new blog it was a good idea!

love sam

Scott N said...

Hi, Jen:

Thanks for the look at your dressing room. It's cool that you've got all those gifts from fans on display there. I guess it must be nice to have a place to relax while you're not on the set.

I can understand what you're saying about not being distracted by members of your family visiting the set. It's got to be hard enough to tune out the members of the crew who are there doing their jobs, so it must be doubly hard when you have members of the family watching, since you want them to see you at your best. And even if they're not on the set and are only watching on a monitor, you still know they're there, and it's probably hard to ignore that.

My family has never had any kind of traditions like yours with holiday gift giving. It's pretty much just the traditional opening of gifts when the holiday arrives and the anticipation of the looks on everyone's face when they see what they got. The closest thing I ever had to a holiday game was when we used to do a game of "Holiday Angels" in my college dorm where all our names were put in a hat and we'd draw the name of someone else to be that person's "Angel" and get gifts for them. That was always fun, especially when my friends' Angels would come up to me for gift ideas based on things my friends liked. Had B&B been on then, I'm sure my angel would have found some B&B related stuff for me given my devotion to the show now. :) But even without soap related gifts, it was a lot of fun.

Take care, as always.

- Scott

Vera said...

Hey Jenn,your new blog is amazing. And you look stunning in that xmas hat, and it fits you.... So cute in it..

Your tradtion sounds loads of fun, and something that you can enjoy too.

We dont have any tradtion, how to play or stuff.. But in the morning we go church ( i dont go the one at around 12am cos i sleep for sure ). Then mom cook dinner and we all stay around the table, then watch popes message and i will be looking forward. When he say it in maltese... Later we call uncle that lives in Australia.... At around 18:30pm we go to grandmas, and then we continue there.. And yea, the house will be full... And again call uncle and we all sing happy xmas to him....

P.S. we did that game, at my last day at school. We all had fun,and it was amazing! We all had a great laugh!!

Joke Devos said...

Hi Jennifer,

Thank you for your new blog.
I like your family game.
Wow you've wonderful gift received from your fans.

What are your plans with christmas?

Love
Joke

Joke Devos said...

I voted for the Studio Holiday Party

Ewa said...

Hi Jennifer

Nice Blogg !

No its not just you , i be very nervous if someone i know ore love sees me ore listen when i talk of something in work.. :)

I became a Grandma early this morning to a little girl =D I dont feel like a grandma but still very funy .. Can be nice be a young Gran to =)

Hugs Ewa

Janis Petzold said...

Jen- I love that gift giving game that your family does. In my family everyone buys something for everyone-but it is getting too expensive to do that now so we are looking for another ways to do things. Also my granparents say that they don't want or need anything. I am going to bring them a Pionsettia Plant That I ordered thru my Church when I go visit them on Christmas Day. When I was little, after we came home from the Children's Christmas Program at Church, we would have everyone over to our house for Dinner. My Mom would make Punch from Lime Sherbet and Ginger Ale, Grandmas Cookies and Poppyseed and Walnut Cake-I can post those recipes for you. We all got to open one Gift on Christmas Eve. Then on Christmas Day is was just Me, My sister, Brother, and my parents opening the rest of our gifts after church including our stockings over the fireplace. It was common to take our photos by the Tree. I have a couple of those pictures so that I can always remember those times.

Janis Petzold said...

Ewa-Congrats on becoming a young Granny. What is the new baby's name. Hope the baby and the new parents are all doing well.

Janis Petzold said...

Jen-most recently, my parents and I would attend a candlelight Christmas Eve Service and I would go over to their home for Dinner. Since they moved to northern Wisconsin this summer, I plan to go to my sister's Christmas Eve, but still attend the Candlelight Service at my church which is at 10pm. Christmas Day we almost always spend at my sisters house, and I hosted Christmas in 2003 when I moved into my new Condo. It is easier to have their dog included in the holiday as well.

Jennifer Gareis' Blog said...

Mike-These gift exchange parties can be a lot of fun. BUT, I do remember times when I finally got the "right" gift to have it taken away from me. I think I had a difficult time keeping it together. In the end we all laughed and made up.

sam- Thanks for the comments and for the gift. I really enjoy your thoughtfulness. I keep them in my dressing room. I am glad that you enjoy my blog. It is an another way to communicate with my fans and I totally love it!

Scott N- I am glad that you like my dressing room where I recharge between scenes. Some of the really "emotional" dialogues require this release. I like keeping all of my fan's gifts there, it is my private oasis.
BnB has limited their guest visits while we are filming because of a possible distraction. Sometimes a noise or movement in the background is all you need to make your mind wonder and you loose your thoughts. I know that gift you called "Holiday Angels," but we called it "Secret Pal." These kind deeds would often continue for the entire year and be revealed at next year's holiday party. It was almost impossible to keep it a secret for one year.

Vera-Your holiday sounds like fun. Usually we try to squeeze all of our traditions into one day. This year we will try three celebrations! I hope that we do not run out of energy. First we go to my brother's for Christmas Eve. Then very early the next morning we drive to my sister's for two days. We return and celebrate at my aunt's home four days later. This is a "trial" run! I will let you know how it will work. We will have lots of different family members celebrating.

Joke-You asked about my Christmas plans. It is a new plan this year. Usually all of the above people came to my parent's home. This year we will have a traveling Christmas celebration. I will let you know how it works!

Ewas- Hello and WELCOME TO THE BLOG! I want to congratulate you on being a grandmom. My mom loves being a grandmom, and I love being an aunt. Let us know about your new baby girl.

Janis Petzold- It sounds like you have many wonderful Christmas memories. My family always tries to get together for the holidays. I usually fly back a few days before Christmas and stay to "almost" New Year's Eve. More on that later!
We would buy everyone a present, but as our family got bigger it became so difficult. Mom and Dad were still getting all of the family gifts until just a few years ago. We started the Family Christmas game and it has become a fun exchange of gifts. We are always looking for new ideas, so if you have another idea, please let me know.
Yes, please send me your recipes. We love to make new cookies. BTW. do you have any pound cake ideas? My grandmother, Mom and sister Rebecca love to make different pound cake recipes. Maybe we can have them for the holidays!

Ewa said...

Hello again !

Thanks for your gratulations =)

Its a little baby girl name Jessica 3500 g was born dec 11 .

Shes beautiful =D I will go wisit her very soon .

I cant belive im a granma but feel great =)

Hope you are doing well , whats up now in your life ?

Thanks Janis and Jennifer ! =)

Hope you will have a wonderful Christmas Holliday !

Hugs Ewa

Vera said...

Thankx, it is fun...

Xmas eve i will go to my bestfriend house. I try and cheer her up ( her father died 2 years ago, and since then she hates celebrate it )... We open a bottle of wine or pepsi or kinnie. Whatever it comes, and then we see the count down... And yes, i'll be the one screaming the numbers!!!

Will be looking forward to hear how it had went!!! Wish you a very happy Christmas and may all your wishes come true!!!!

Joke Devos said...

Thank you so much for your comment, Jennifer.

Will you says to your parent "A
very merry chrisrmas & happy 2009" from me.

Love
Joke

Scott N said...

Thanks for your response, Jennifer. I know what you mean about avoiding distractions on the set from the few times I've been in studios and had to shut off my cell phone, make sure my watch didn't have any chimes set, etc. I think one time, I even bought a plain old analog watch with no alarms just for the visit.

As for doing "Secret Pals" for a whole year, I can't even imagine that. It was hard enough for angels to keep their identities secret for the 2-3 weeks of the game, especially when the angel's chosen partner knew that his or her angel was getting info from his or her close friends. Trying to do that until the following Xmas would be really tough!

sam bell said...

hey jennifer
thank u soo much for ur comment!!
and i liked the photo in ur dressing room it looks so nice!
the photo in the santa hat is awsome! i cant believe u wore something i sent u!! thats really nice!

i hope u enjoy ur break from work and have a nice trip to the east coast
have a wonderful time with rebecca and all ur wonderful huge family!
ur nieces r so cute i hope they have a great christmas too


love sam
p.s i hope u get the gift u want in the game! let us know what u win and if there is any hair pulling lol

jennylenseman said...

WHO'S THAT LADY? YOU'RE A SHINING STAR;AND WHEN I LOOK AT YOU,I GET BOLD,KNOWING, THAT I WILL ALWAYS STAND BY YOU;EVERYDAY,EVERYWEEK,EVERY MONTH,EVERYYEAR..YOU TAKE ME A LITTLE HIGHER,BOOBEE,SKINTIGHTBABYGOLDIELOCKS.MAMA HONEYBEAR.I DON'T NEED SUPERFICIALITIES,NOR TREASURES ON EARTH,WHERE THIEVES BREAK THROUGH AND STEAL;JUST THE VISUAL AND LITERARY PRESENCE,OF THE ONE AND ONLY,SWEET,SWEETJENNYG,MY PAL.