We couldn't do a Christmas party with the youth group on Christmas, so we decided to have a party early. We met at the church at 5:30 p.m. to setup decorations - something which has become a new tradition at the church. That went pretty well - the youth had a good time setting up the Christmas tree, the nativity, and hanging out. Then we headed over to our house. We piled nearly thirty people into our rather small home. Its by no means tiny, but on the other hand, it is a 3 bed, 2 bath, with nearly half of that being upstairs.

    We began by playing mafia. Mafia is a game of chance and skill. One takes a deck of cards and hands them out strategically. Each person receives only one card. If you receive any card between 2-10 you are a civilian. If you receive an Ace you are a sheriff, and if you receive a Jack, Queen, or King you are the mafia. The game begins by saying "Everyone asleep." Then "Mafia awake." "Who do you want to kill?" The mafia (one or more) then decides who their victim will be. "Mafia asleep." "Sheriff awake." "Who do you think is in the mafia?" They can pick one person, to which the moderator gives a yes or no answer. Then "Sheriff asleep", "Everyone awake." At this point you inform the players who has died - and give some humorous death that is personal to that person, e.g. if a girl loves cats may, "She fell into their kitty litter." Or if a guy loves guitar, "His guitar exploded." At this point the townspeople can try someone for being in the mafia. They take a vote, if more than 50% believe that individual is in the mafia, he dies and his true identity is revealed. This continues on till all the mafia are captured or all the townspeople have died.

    Once we completed this we ate cookies, pretzels, and drank cider and hot chocolate. Then it was time for the central activity of the evening - a White Elephant Gift Exchange. In this exchange each person brings a gift - somewhat of a gag - and puts it in a circle. Everyone receives a slip of paper with a number. Beginning with the first number, a person gets up selects and opens a gift. Then the next person can either take a gift or steal a gift. And so on. A gift can only be passed around 3 times before it is "finally" someones. It is always to someone's advantage to be towards the end of the line.

    Tonight we had some really great gifts - more than I can enumerate. Our three winners were really neat:

• Marshmellow Keychains - Marshmellow keychains with faces on them representing Soggy Marshmellow, Evil Marshellow, Interpretive Dance Marshmellow, etc. This is more funny when recognized in light of the "hidden meaning." Some time ago I was chosen as the person whom all the girls like to pull pranks on. They needed a codename for me so they used, "marshmellow" and then when they wanted to push me in a pool it was "throw the marshmellow in the fire." So I have the name evil marshmellow, and the other marshmellows are springs off of this.
• Jingle-Bell Rock - A rock nicely decorated with a jingle bell in a small box, a parody on the song Jingle Bell Rock.
• Secret Spy Kit - This one was actually the one I received. It contained a small number of humerous secret spy options - e.g. sunglasses, a broken watch, a mini wrench, an identity card, etc.