Mary practically fell through the door. She had a black plastic garbage bag slung over one shoulder that was so full it had started to burst in places.

Mary: "Look what I found!"
Andy: "Mary, generally when people put their garbage out, it's meant to stay on the curb for trash pick-up."
Mary: "Ha, good one Andy. You get to open yours, first."

Mary lugged the sack to the Christmas tree, where they opened it and let the wrapped gifts fall to the floor. Mary bent down, picked up a cylindrical shaped gift and handed it to Andy.

Andy: "My what?"
Mary: "Present, silly! It is Christmas, right?"

He took it and sat down on the couch between James and Emily. He unwrapped it slowly and gingerly, exposing a metallic canister plastered with red reindeer. Probably pistachios, he thought. Harmless enough, but he made a note to be sure to let Mary have the first taste. As he began to pull of the lid, Emily and James both found excuses to get up.

Emily: "I need some more eggnog."
James: "Me too."

James quickly gulped down the half full glass of eggnog in his hand and stood up, following Emily. Andy finally got the lid off, and yelped when paper snakes exploded from within the canister. He looked positively shocked, a look Mary didn't think had ever crossed his face before.

Emily: "Oh, sweetie, are you all right?"

Andy frowned as Emily rejoined him on the couch.

Andy: "You knew what this was?"
Emily: "Well, not beforehand. But I know enough not to open an exploding-paper-snakes-sized canister. Especially if it came from Mary."

Andrew smiled, though Mary could tell it was forced.

Mary: "Who's next?"
Markus: "If it's all the same to you, Mary, I think the rest of us probably want to wait for the sedative effects of copious amounts of rum to set in."
Mary: "Fair enough. Where is this rum of which you speak?"