Now to the fun...S and I planned the games. Naaah, S planned the games, I just helped. S works in marketing, so she is into this stuff. She outlined the team building games, all around a treasure theme. Can you guess what we are doing here?
Our most favorite game was the Trash to Treasure game. We gave each of four teams a pile of trash and they were to create something. Here, we were sorting trash in the minutes before the start of the retreat. One of the ladies came up and asked us what we were doing. I couldn't tell her just yet, but insisted she take our picture, anyway.
I had gobs of benign trash stashed away in a trash bag in this very laundry hamper for our game. A few days before the retreat I noticed that the hamper was empty. OH NO. I asked Hubby if he had seen my stashed trash. "Yeah, it was trash, right? I threw it away..." Well, yes it was trash, but it wasn't that kind of trash!! I sent an S.O.S. email asking a handful of ladies for bigger and better and volumes of trash. I laughed when I received an email asking from one lady that if she donated something, could she get it back. We received binoculars, a foot stool, a broken fishing reel, a child's old art project, dusty floral arrangements, old toys, telephones, oh the list could go on and on. We had so much trash! S looked at the stuff that came just from my car. "What are you talking about? You have plenty of trash!" Hmmm made me think about how much more I can still clean out my house. Totally different from her. This is the woman who thinks her dream job would be a professional organizer. She had maybe 1/50 of the stuff I brought. Then again I have kids. They produce more stuff. Oh I have stuff these days like I never had before!
I appointed S the spur of the moment judge. That's because OH YES my Competitive Spirit was participating. We were on a budget, so the grand prize was to be the first group in the line for lunch, which was absolutely fab, (you know, because J. put it together).
My camera battery was low, so the pictures are a little fuzzy, and some pictures were so bad I didn't include them.
This is Queen Esther and her cardboard scepter wearing 2 year old Kathleen's shoes, I think.
See the kandoo box? That is the throne in the story of Esther.
Hmmm I remember this one had a Garden of Eden theme and a trinity theme, with lots of craft things in threes. They represented things we tend to make our earthly treasures.
Now this is my group. And yes, the Competitive Spirit suggested we make a person. You know, the Competitive Spirit has this thing about original ideas. This is our Fisher of Men. We scored binoculars and the broken fishing reel. Two old cordless phones made his arms, an old cell phone ear piece made his ip*d in his ears. Curling ribbon made his fishing line, and we had blue river rock beads that made water. We made a play doh fish outlined by a silver pipe cleaner. Out of his head came a child's art project, and also the dusty floral arrangement. He is sitting next to Kristen...I want to live somewhere next to her in heaven when she sings! Our Fisher of Men is wearing her dad's broken sandals he left in Hawaii. You must know judge S was also in our group.Well it came time to judge whose trash was best. Remember, I bowed out of the judging. S gave a little award to each group, however, the Fisher of Men lost to Queen Esther. Now, my Competitive Spirit was ok with this, since I knew we couldn't really win an award with S, K, and me at the same table. I knew that ours was just the most smashing trash creation, anyway! But you know my Competitive Spirit felt a little vindicated when S sent me an email this week that said, well, I really shouldn't tell you, but you can guess!!!
I bought 2 ornaments an hour before the sacred exchange. We play that you go in numerical order, based on the number you draw out of a basket. You either pick a gift from the pile and open it, or you steal one out of someone's lap that has been opened. Once an ornament lands for the third time in someone's hot little hands it is considered frozen. I had it all figured out this year. I bought two ornaments so that I would have two number positions, and a good chance at getting some cool ornaments. We are about to start, and one lady announces that her three little red bags stuffed with Christmas tree wrapping are considered one ornament. And I whipped around after my ornament radar went off after hearing talk of multiple ornaments. I looked at her coyly, and asked why she just didn't draw three numbers. Oh the look of horror...the gasp, the hand over her heart...
Two of the ornaments were picture frames. What I didn't say out loud, lest someone steal them from me, was that I was going to put pictures in them from the ornament exchange to cherish forever. But, noooo. S. stole them from me just after J. said she couldn't take the last ornament in the pile because that was her own. Sigh. But I really was ok with that. Let me tell you another thing about J. She likes nice things. So I knew I was going to get a nice ornament because I was pretty sure she bought a nice one. And sure enough, she bought a beautiful Hawaiian ornament with dolphins. It would have been my first choice, really. Well the original 3 in 1 lady also won a Hawaiian ornament with palm trees, similar to my dolphin ornament. Now you know nice ornaments come in really nice boxes, just like these did. 3 in 1 lady starts making a comment about how nice the box is, decorated in a Hawaiian fabric motif, with magnetic doors on the box. So, kiddingly and really just for another laugh, I said, "I'll trade you my box for your ornament." Then she insisted I take the gold and green palm tree ornament. No, no, no, I refused. And then I refused a second time. And a third time. Now this made me feel guilty, particularly when she plopped her box on top of mine. Finally she had me convinced that I have an ornament for each of my two boys. Sigh. Okay. She broke me down. No more laughs. But seriously, I walked away with what my first two choices would have been, anyway.
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