Pre-gift/re-gift re-cap: Our stockings are stuffed

They came, they drank, they pre/re-gifted. Tuesday night, along with a fair smattering of gift-seeking Brokelynites, we made our way to Hot Bird in Prospect Heights for the much-awaited Pre-gift/Re-gift Holiday Party. We showed up stoked for drink specials and holiday cheer, and full of grand dreams of KitchenAid mixers and $100 gift cards. The cheap drinks and holiday cheer: check. As for the rest… we came pretty darn close.

The evening started off with shades of swaps-past, with two literary ladies hauling in a load of books of all sorts. But the bounty soon grew, taking on scarves, earrings, comics, superhero action figures and even the prize-catch of “Late, Late at Night,” the audiobook memoir of Rick Springfield (read by Springfield himself).

Some other true highlights: a DVD series on the works of Michel Gondry, a salad-spinner/chopper, two(!) bicycle fenders (which, unclaimed, made their way to the evening’s next bar of choice), a truly festive Christmas apron, Eat Tweet: a Twitter cookbook and, drumroll… a KitchenAid (3-cup) food processor (so close).

It was a good time, all around. And a bonus to all the giving: Hot Bird coupons were being clipped left and right, so the party officially kicked-off the year of the Beer Book 2.

Thanks to Hot Bird, our bartender and all the pre/re-gifters who made it a party. If anyone’s got those fenders, let us know.