Fun new game

Shortly after Christmas Chris and I got this game. A few people saw it and agreed that it looked like fun, but we didn't get a chance to play until Saturday. O. M. G. I don't think I've laughed this much in years!

Basically each player gets a card with a word on it that they draw. Then they pass their sketchbook to the next person. That person looks at the drawing and write down on the next page what they think it is. They then pass the books to the next person. That person looks at the new word and draw it. Etc. Until it gets back to the original person. You then reveal all of the drawings and guesses.

So in the example here, the word is kickball and by the end it's swiss cheese.

When we played, it was interesting how some stayed pretty consistent throughout. Others started off one way and then switched to something else halfway through, and others.... Yeah, there was a lot of laughing!

If you play games with 4 or more people, I highly recommend this.

House decorating

Back in either late November or early December I decided that I wanted to make a gingerbread house. I figured this would be a fun activity to share with our friends. Well due to scheduling, we couldn't get together until this past Saturday. So we decorated houses and then had a re-gift Yankee Swap.

It's funny, because when we had the supplies on our counter in the kitchen it didn't look like we had all that much. So we asked people to bring some candy to share. Wow, when it all was on the table, it was apparent that we had more than enough!

To allow time for the houses to set up before decorating, Chris and I made the basic house shape in advance. And we used graham crackers since I figured it would be easier than baking enough gingerbread to make 17 houses. So we started putting them together on Friday night. And we soon discovered that two boxes of graham crackers weren't enough, so we finished them up on Saturday morning after a trip to the grocery store. And in the end, 2 people were unable to make it, which was probably a good thing as the house was pretty full with 15 people (6 of them being kids).

We started off the evening with dinner. I think in Chris' and my minds we were thinking we would start with decorating and people could eat whenever, but as it turned out, we ate and then decorated. Back at the end of December I had come across this recipe for mini ham and cheese sandwiches. I thought they sounded good, but was also somewhat skeptical. But we gave them a try, and they were delicious! A little greasy/buttery, but very good. We knew those wouldn't be enough, so we also had salad and pizza. We recently discovered the BEST pizza ever. Papa John's BBQ Chicken with Bacon. Amazing! Normally it comes with onions, but we have a number of non-onion people, so we got it without. Still very good. That pizza went quickly.

For one family, this was their first time coming to one of our game nights. They commented that they found it amusing that we essentially hosted a kids' party when we don't have kids. Hey, we like to do fun "kids" activities. :) Besides, I've found that sometimes it's better to include the kids if not having them there would mean that the parents are unable to come due to lack of babysitters, etc. So the kids come and they run around the house, play games, watch movies, etc.

And it's not like we ignore the kids. Kristin was the first of the adults to finish decorating her house. Probably because she wasn't busy helping the kids with theirs. So when she was done she started playing with the kids. It seems their game was to all hold onto her legs as she tried to walk.

We rounded out the evening with a Yankee Swap. For the most part it was a re-gift Yankee Swap, but I think there were a couple of items purchased especially for the event. I think one of the "best" gifts was a small glass plate etched with an image of The Last Supper. But the best part of it was when Caitlyn referred to it as "Thanksgiving". Her mom then responded that she thought they needed to get to church a little more often.

So to wrap this up, here are some more pictures of the houses.

Bowling, Birthdays, and Baking... oh my!

So every couple of weeks we get together with some friends (mostly Chris’ co-workers) for Game Night. This week we decided to go bowling and it became a larger than normal affair with some extra people invited. It also was semi-close to various people’s birthdays, so we took the opportunity to celebrate. And of course we had to try to embarrass them with party hats and balloons.

Given the number of people I picked up two cakes. And we combined the ages and put the number “81” on the cake (York and Kristin were both turning 24 and Esch is 33).

The timing actually worked out rather well since we got there towards the end of the league so we went into the lounge for drinks and cake before the lanes opened up.

And then it was cosmic bowling. Any ideas on what light setting to use when taking photos under a black light? All of my pictures are blue and blurry. The blurry I understand, but I’d like to know how to avoid the blue if at all possible.

Our next Game Night will be on Sunday afternoon and we’re doing a Yankee Swap. We’ve bought one of our gifts but still need to get one more.

Saturday I had my second skating lesson and realized that I’m the worst skater in my class. I think I’m ok with that, but it’s frustrating at the same time. One problem I have is that I feel the teacher goes over too many techniques in one class so there is no opportunity to actually master any of them. Finally, rather than trying something I didn’t feel comfortable with; I just started doing my own thing. And as a result, I actually got better at skating backwards- one of my goals. Now if only I could master stopping.

After skating I came home and finished prepping for the annual Cookie Baking day. Maybe other years are just as bad, but this year I felt it was exceptionally stressful- mostly because of my dad.

So first of all, my dad has a recipe that calls to be baked "in a moderate oven, 350-400 degrees". Sometimes they come out hard as a rock, this year they all fell apart. Find a temperature and stick to it! You can't bake something in a 50 degree range.

Then he had another recipe and after he's added most of the ingredients he realizes he used baking soda instead of baking powder. He thinks he can just add the other one and it will be fine. We tell him no- throw it out and start over. He says, what, we're not going to bake these as is? No, throw it out! In the end, he did throw it out and they came out fine, but I can just imagine the disaster otherwise.

And as to the timing- since I had skating in the morning we decided we would start at 11. But then they were late. And then we had to have lunch. So it was easily 12:30 before we started. And then they had to leave (not sure of the time, 4-5 maybe) because Hanna had to go get a tree with her dad. What? Why couldn't they do that a different day? Aaaargh!

We did manage to get most of the recipes made before they left- just one other that had to go into the oven. As a result, we got all of those cookies for ourselves.