Thursday, January 19, 2012

Minute-To-Win-It Christmas Party

When most people think of their favorite part of Christmas is spending time with friends and family. This is no different than for me. I love all the traditions and parties and stories that come from Christmas. This year was new for us as it was our first Christmas married Christmas together. We wanted to find a good balance between each of our families' traditions and being able to start ones of our own. One idea that I had thrown around for months was throwing a "Edminster Cousin Party" and if it was a success making it a yearly tradition. As kids get older it makes it harder for cousins to get together as often as when they are little, so I thought this would be a good way that Jeff and his cousins could get together and I could get to know everyone better as well. I love to throw parties and this was the first actual party I got to throw in our home.

Theme this year was Minute-To-Win-IT with a Candy cane twist.

We started out eating, which due to my bad planning and our oven heating element going out (which we later figured out) was late getting started. We had a delicious salad, ham, cheesy potatoes, fruit, artichoke dip, and rolls (that didn't turn out very well due to the oven issue). It was fun to be able to visit and eat, poor Oakley wanted so bad to be part of the group, but being a puppy he is still learning to be calm. (Still a work in progress).
After everyone ate we started the games.

First game was Bite Me.

Basically, you have various sized gift bags and you move them onto a podium/table. Tricky part is you can't use your hands and only your feet can be touching the ground.
Maggie and Ike (her soon-to-be hubby) went first. They kept pushing each other's bags off the table and by the end of the minute we didn't know who's bag was whos. I recommend either getting different colored bags or tie a ribbon on one set if you decide to play this game.
Ike is extremely tall and had the hardest time getting to the smallest bag. He did it though!
Bobby and Larrissa were by far the most competitive couple for this game.
They spent majority of the time blocking each other from getting to their bags. I wish we would have had more room in our house and could have had an obstacle course to go through or something. Just a funny thought.
Kevin and David are our examples of what-NOT-to do. Here is Kevin with his hand on the floor.

The next game is rightfully named Reindeer Nosedive.


We made it a little easier and you had the string in your mouth. Maggie and Ike went first again. Maggie didn't want to put very much on her nose. We found out the key is the more gel you put on the nose and on the actual pom the better chase it sticks. Bobby is a great example (see picture below).
A little hesitant at first

Yupp... that's petroleum jelly on his nose. A whole lot of it.
But it worked.
The funniest part of the night was when Bobby went to get it off of his nose. He headed into the bathroom and you hear him yell "its waterproof!!"

Next round kept us all on the edge with the Christmas Cliffhanger.


Pretty simple concept, but harder than it looks to do. You have 10 cards and you have to get them to hang on the edge of the table. Jeff and his siblings all failed at this one, while his cousins were all pretty successful.
One down... 9 to go
A lot harder than it looks. I promise!
My dear husband got so close... but not quite there
Jason was a pro. He got it on his first card. Proving that it is possible.
 
The trick is to keep it going straight. If it goes sideways your outta luck.

The second to last game we played was Stack Attack.



You have one hand (can't use both) to stack all 36 cups and bring them down. It sounds impossible but I promise it is. Lizzy was the first to go and she did it perfectly. We were all in awe by her talent.



Allison went after Lizzy and had a really hard time because all the cups were smashed together.




Bobby had a very meticulous method but just ran out of time at the last second.

Kevin wanted to cheat and use both hands.

Jason finishing up his stack just in time
Larrisa was by far the most fun to watch stack the cups. Bobby (her husband) kept yelling that if she didn't finish in time a bunch of kittens or puppies would die. Then her cups started falling and it was all down hill from there.
I guess it was just a little too much to handle with all those puppies dying.
The final game of the night was  Extreme Christmas Nutstacker

To make it a little easier we just put it on the table. Mostly this was the guys trying to complete this task. There is a little trick, which I won't share in case you are planning on playing at your Christmas Party next year.
Ike was so focused on completely this level

These two were very analytical on this task
We had a first and second place price and it was based on who finished the most games in a minute. The winners were Lizzy and Jason. First place was a Million dollar (candy bar that I found at Bed, Bath, and Beyond) and a $10 Target gift card. Second place was supposed to be with a 100 Grand candy bar (couldn't find one in time) and a $5 Target gift card.

We finished the night with an exciting white elephant game and lots of laughing. It was such a fun night and I can't wait till next year. I hope everyone had as much fun as we did.

Love Always,