My son and I went out the day before and got all the food and drinks for the party. We went to several different stores looking for "prizes" to give away to the winners of the games. I wanted to get more reindeer antlers for the "Santa Hat" game but the store I got them from last year were all out. I was going to skip that game but my son figured out a way to play it anyway and plus some people wore Santa or elf hats. I did find a container for the M&M's to go in for the "Guess How Many" game. We picked up several types of candy to pass out to the winners of the group games. Then it was off to find some deli trays. I went to Krogers but they didn't have any so ended up over at Albertson's. We had already decided to cook some of those Cocktail Weiners or whatever they are called. Little Smokies? I would put them in the crock pot in the morning and let them cook all day. I also picked up some carrots and celery for a veggie tray. We got chips and dip and even a couple of summer sausages. I wanted to make sure we had enough food. I asked my son what kind of soda we should get since our family only drinks Dr Pepper. He said "Dr Pepper" and water. I asked him "What if some people don't like Dr Pepper?" and he said they would probably drink water anyway. I decided to get twelve packs of Coke and 7UP anyway. I figured that if I had any of those left over, hubby and I could mix up a couple of mixed drinks. Yeah, right! lol! We were done with the food shopping. Yay!
That night we worked some more on the house. I was busy trying to figure out what kind of dishes to put the food in. I decided to just leave the chips in the bags so that I could close them up in case there were any chips left. There were just some odds and ends to do in between watching TV and eating supper. Plus I was tired from all the running around we did.
The next day we just finished straighten and picking up. Hubby came home at noon to help out with the vaccuming and mopping. I had hurt my shoulder the week before and it was still bothering me, so his doing that really helped out. I had forgotten to start the little weinies, so hurried up and got that started. I got the deli tray packages opened up and noticed that one of the packages of meat looked bad. I had hubby look at it later and he said it was bad too. Good thing I bought that summer sausage! I got all the trays arranged, cut the summer sausage up into slices and arranged the other one in another dish with Ritz crackers around it. I got the veggies in their dishes and the dips in their bowls. My son who is kind of anal about things being sorted out and put in order, fixed up the prize basket. He did a great job. I had a bunch of doilies from last year and found some more to use as coasters, so I placed them all around on our wood coffee table and end tables. I didn't want to end up with some water rings or soda spills on our furniture. My son opened up the Christmas hard candy (you know the ribbon candy and mints) and put them in the candy dishes. He was a big help. I printed out all the handouts for the games and made sure I had what I hoped was enough copies for everyone. As it turned out, I didn't. We finished up and I was able to take my shower and get ready with plenty of time to go.
Hubby made it home in plenty of time and the three of us waited anxiously for everyone to arrive. I think my son was more excited about the party and everyone coming to our house than he let on. After all, he wasn't real interested in having a party. I guess our first guests got there about 6:45. A.J. handed out the reindeer antlers and told them they had to wear them. We decided to wait till everyone got there before we told them the rules of the "hat" game. People gradually started arriving. We the toys they brought for "Toys for Tots" on the card table. I did find out that we were having extra people. I was a little worried because I didn't think I had enough prizes. But that worked out okay, and I even had goodies left over. Everyone that was coming arrived so the party really got started then.
The first game was the "Santa Hat" game. The object of the game is sort of like the game "Spoons". The last one wearing a "hat" was the "loser". My son was wearing a Santa Hat. No one could take the hat off until he did, and he wouldn't be doing that until later on in the evening. Once he took his off, then everyone else could take off theirs BUT you didn't want anyone to notice that you had taken off your hat. A few of the kids would ask me if A.J. had taken his hat off yet, and I would just look at them and shrug my shoulders. When A.J. finally took his hat off, it was funny how many of the kids did not notice. He even stood next to people and talked to them several times waiting for them to notice. We eventually ended up with a "winner" and she got to pick out the antlers that she wanted as her prize. The kids and adults loved it. It was quite funny watching my son and the reactions of the kids when they realized he didn't have his "hat" on. lol!
While the hat game was going on, we played other games to distract everyone. The first game was to guess how many M&M's were in the snowman container. Everyone made their guess and I announced the winner. I made a mistake though. After I told who won, I realized that I had said the wrong amount. I wasn't going to change it though. What difference did 30 M&M's make anyway. Afterall, it was done in fun. Guy got to keep the container with all those M&M's in it and I'm sure his mom will use the container for other things. The second game was called "Christmas Carols". It was a list of Christmas song titles written in different words. For example: "Decorate the entry-ways" is "Deck the Halls". I did find out that some of the "titles" were actually a line from the song. I tried to go through the list beforehand and change those to the titles but I must have missed some. This was a group game where I tried to have one adult and four youth. Somehow I miss calculated that one. We ended up having a tie between two groups - they each had two wrong answers so at the suggestion of our newest friend, I chose the group that had finised first. They each got one of those big candy canes. The next game was "Christmas Alphabet". I gave each person a sheet of paper with the letters of the alphabet on it. They had to fill in the blank with a word for each letter that related to Christmas. The original rule was that the first one who completed their list with legible words was the winner. But my friend Betty suggested we do it kind of like Scattergories which I thought was a great idea. So I had one of the Chris's give his answer for each letter and then those that had the same as his or even the same answer as someone else had to scratch off their answer. We had some great answers and then there were some really weird ones. Chris had put "reefs" for his "R" letter. I guess he thought that was how "wreaths" was spelled. He didn't live that one down the rest of the night! ha! I think we all learned some new words and our vocabulary lists have grown from some of these answers. I really got confused on one of Chris's words. The letter was "V" and he said "vibrant" but I thought he said "vibrator". When he said it, I looked at him really funny and had to go over to him and ask him to repeat it. When I finally understood what he said, I cracked up. A few people across the room figured out what I thought he said and they too joined in the laughter. I didn't live that one down! lol! Tiffany's son Liam who was visiting from Chicago won that game (he was the one that had all the new vocabulary words) and got to pick out his own prize. On to the next game. This one was called "Christmas Find Out Who". You had a list of questions that you had to fill in with the name of the person who had done or not done that item. For example, one of the questions was "Who has celebrated Christmas in another country". You had to go around to each person and ask until you found someone who had done it. This was probably a game we could have played at the beginning of the party, but it worked out well. I eventually gave up on this and just let everyone else do it. I didn't award any prizes for this game. The prize was getting to know people you didn't know. Steve and I were the only ones who had ever celebrated Christmas in another country anyway. He's done it in three different ones, Japan, Italy and Korea and I've done it in Okinawa and Italy. We give our thanks to the U.S. Air Force for those experience. lol! Most people have re-gifted a present. I actually did it that night. I had a plastic boot that had been filled with candy before and I used it for one of the prizes (filled with candy of course!), but don't tell anyone. lol! It was after 10 by this time, so I figured it was time for the kids to play Guitar Hero. We only had one guitar so they had to take turns. There was no fighting over it and I think everyone had several turns at it. There were several that were pretty good at it too! I was finally able to actually sit down and rest my feet and back. It felt so good!
We all had a great time. Everyone enjoyed the games and I don't think anyone got bored. We made some new friends and introduced our friends to new ones. We got reaquainted with old friends that we hadn't seen in a while. Now that everyone was gone, I finally got to sit down and actually eat some of that food that I had. Then it was time to clean up. Hubby wanted to just leave it and go to bed, but I didn't want to wake up to all the trash. So we picked up trash and cans and put away the food. We were all very tired but it was great having our friends over. I look forward to having them over many more times.
A.J. and I went to deliver the toys on Monday. I was a little disappointed that the store had taken down their "Toys for Tots" sign to put up their own sales signs but was glad that we were able to contribute to those less fortunate. The "Toys for Tots" program is a great one even if it is run by the Marines. LOL!
Here is a slideshow of a few pictures from the party and our delivery of the toys:
