High School Christmas Party

What a weekend. The Christmas party went well. This was one of the first "events" we've done here at the church. I have to admit I was a little nervous about it.

We played a game with ice cubes (made with various other liquids) and four volunteers had to try to guess what each ice cube was made of.



The best was 3 1/2 (1/2 point for saying milk, but not buttermilk). The 7 were: taco sauce, worchestershire sauce (see picture above), buttermilk, manderin orange juice, dr. thunder soda, lemonade and water.

(sidenote) soy sauce will not freeze!

Dinner was good, teens love to eat. Then we did a White Elephant Gift exchange. This took this a little while to get into. (ie. everyone just kept opening up a new gift and would not steal one). But once it got going, it was intense. In one round, we had 8 gifts that ended up being stolen twice (which was our limit per round) and just about each one was taken once.

Some of the gifts:
1. a slice of cheese
2. two stuffed pig dolls
3. a broken "don't spill the beans" game
4. various cds (dishwalla, mercy me, a couple compilations)
5. a vhs version of "big daddy"
6. mark twain paperback
7. 10 random buttons from my childhood
8. $1 bill (which by the way no one really seemed to want)
9. a mp3 player (a rather hot item)
10. headphones (nothing else)

I ended up with a white elephant figurine. It might become my WEG for the jr. high party this Saturday.

We played charades while I video taped the "video story". This is something I started a few years back and its a fun little thing. Each person tells part of the story while you video tape them. But all they know is the last two words the person before them said. This year we added that they had to use their WEG in their story. It turned out rather well. A funny little video to watch at the end of the night.

Also, we played a game where you really wrap (and I mean really good) a present so its tough to open. Then each person has to roll dice and when they roll the # they get to put on some mittens and unwrap the gift. During this each person is going around the circle trying to roll the # so they can open the gift. The last person to unwrap the gift and get it out gets the gift (no matter how much or how little they actually worked on it). Its a fun game that all ages like. Amy told me that the 3rd person to roll an #8 actually got to get the gifts open, because no one else could roll an 8, so he just kept going and going.

One other "funny" moment was when I was trying to introduce myself to some of the students I didn't know. I walked up to one girl and said "I don't think we've met, I'm Mike" To which she responed with "I go to your church, my name is _____" It was funny because I had heard her name and it was on all the "lists" I got when I got here, but she had never come to any other event, or Sunday School or Sunday night. She has come to service, but she sits in the back with her mom. So I tried to joke with her about it. I don't think she was offended or anything, but I thought it was pretty funny that was her first response.

One other thing that helped with the party was the fact that there were more youth coaches there. Normally its just Amy and I. This year, we had a few more and that was good. Someone else to take pics and someone else to help with the games.

So it was a great day, until the phone call we got as we were leaving. The one telling us that one of our good friends from our last church had passed away.