Every December we host a Christmas party. We do monthly potlucks, but the Christmas party is just snacks and tends to be pretty well attended. In the first 2 hours after I sent an email reminder the only responses I got were from families unable to attend. I told Brandon that it might be a very small group this year. Then something changed. Everyone started saying "YES!" The list just kept growing and growing. On the morning of the party that guest list was 78! Yes, seventy-eight people! I was nervous that we would not have room for everyone. As is the case with families, we had many families who weren't able to attend including four groups of 5. We ended up with a pretty hopping party of 49!
Amazingly we learned that we could indeed have held 78 and more in our house! We had plenty of room. The kids (mainly almost school age and older) and some brave parents and I were in the basement for most of the night. I planned 12 fun Christmas games to be played in teams. A great friend made some preschool crafts that kids were able to do in the kitchen. The back family room housed the babies and many adults and the front room was almost empty. We had plenty or room and plenty of food. It was such a special special night!
I wish I would have gotten more photos of the festivities going on upstairs, but there wasn't time. Just imagine happy adults and babies!
The first game was done in 4 teams. It was like pin the tail on the donkey, but it involved a team effort and all the parts of a snowman! It was fun to see the kids work together to create their snowmen! The groups were often larger than what is shown, and the adults were not pictured with the snowmen, but kids were often going upstairs and getting snacks or making crafts.
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| Team One: The hat got a little high! |
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| Team 2 did a great job! |
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| Team 3 was hard at work! |
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| Team 4 had lots of fun! |
Meanwhile some younger kids were crafting upstairs!
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| T: I was glad to make crafts! |
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| Game 2 was passing a candy cane to all the team members using only mouths and candy canes. |
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| Game 3: Snowflake relays! |
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| Game 4: Vaseline on nose and pom-pom on a string. Try to become Rudolph! |
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| M: It was hard work, but I did it! |
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| Game 5: Try to get the pom pom to your nose the fastest by sucking up the string. |
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| Game 6: Chopsticks and marshmallows transferring to other cups. |
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| Lots of teamwork! |
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| Game 7: Shovel snow with vaseline on your nose! |
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| Game 8: Jingle in your trunk - shake the bells out of the tissue box. Loud and fun! |
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| Game 9: Hang the ornaments using paper towel tubes. (Lots of good encouragement in the background) |
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| L has some great skills! |
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| Game 10: Draw a Christmas scene on a plate without looking! Hilarious! |
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| M: I felt like I was doing really well! |
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| They all thought it was going great! |
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| But... this is what was actually happening! |
Game 11 was stacking red solo cups to make Christmas trees blindfolded, but none of the pictures describe it very well.
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| Game 12: The popular favorite, snowman dress-up race. T was doing a second round. We did use quite a bit of toilet paper! |
It was a great night! I am already thinking about ideas for next year and excited for our January potluck!
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