I thought I would include exactly how I planned it, b/c it was easy and went off seamlessly. I used a Facebook invite to get the word out and communicate about the party. I used Perfect Potluck for the food sign up list. If you have never used Perfect Potluck, it is so easy and even sends reminders out to people. It’s so much easier than just commenting or texting back and forth with everyone. Our menu was traditional Thanksgiving, so turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, corn, cranberry sauce, rolls, and a few other things. I hesitate to post this on here, b/c I would never want to offend or damage a small business, but this must be documented b/c we got a good laugh. I ordered my turkey breast from a local place that makes great to-go meals. Everyone loves this place. She catered a volleyball dinner for us several years ago and it was wonderful. Unfortunately, the turkey was not what I had in mind. It looked like a hunk of turkey from the Walmart deli smeared in seasoning. I stuck with the ham, but at least one person told me it was good. It was not a big deal b/c we had plenty to eat. Again, I only post b/c it was entertaining for all of us. I’m just glad it wasn’t my Thanksgiving turkey.
I planned four games for the night. I wanted to make sure they moved quickly b/c when you let a game go on and on, it seems to totally kill the mood. It’s better to leave everyone wanting more. I picked up some prizes b/c I think prizes make everything more fun and our group is very competitive! We started slow with a simple game of heads or tails. To play this, everyone stands up and chooses heads or tails by putting their hands on their heads or 'tails'. You flip a coin. If it’s heads, those with their hands on their heads stay standing, the others are eliminated and sit down. Everyone chooses heads or tails again and you repeat until there is one person left standing. You can change you guess every round. That was a good way to get everyone going. The winner won a $10 gift certificate to a local coffee shop.
Next, we played a new game call Four on a Couch. I wanted a new game that hopefully no one had played before. I’ll let you read the directions here rather than type them. I was a little concerned b/c I had never played, but it was a lot of fun! It was funny, challenging, competitive, and didn’t take forever. We played men verses women which made it easy to keep the teams straight. We are going to play this with Darrin’s team in a couple weeks and I plan to find a way to visibly distinguish between teams such as colored partied hats or something funny. The men won our game, but there was a lot of ‘talking across the table’. To keep it fair, there shouldn’t be any conspiring. I would also add the rule that you can’t call the same name back to back.
The third game was Reverse Charades. For this game, you can use the cards from Pictionary, Guesstures, Taboo, or something like that. We used Guesstures and it was perfect. We divided up into three teams of six people each. One team had five, but that was fine. I think teams of 4-6 are ideal. To play, one person is the guesser and the others all act out the cards together. You try to guess as many cards as you can in one minute. We allowed as many passes as you wanted just to keep the game moving. Whereas Four on a Couch was more serious and strategic (with some laughs), Reverse Charades was really funny. I needed six prizes for this and eight for Four on a Couch, so I went with $1 scratch off tickets. It was just a little more fun than a candy bar and cheap enough to not break us.
The last game we played was Left, Center, Right. I’m sure several have played this. We did have a few at the party that had not. Instead of playing with the chips that are provided (you can buy the game from Amazon, Target, etc) we used $1 bills. Everyone started with $3. You roll three dice to determine if you move your dollars to the left, center, right, or keep them. The dollars on the left or right continue to move back and forth. Once dollars go to the center, they stay there and that becomes the pot. The last person with any money wins the pot. This was very fun and very competitive. We crowded around the kitchen island and played. If you play this at a party, you have to tell people to bring $3 and also have plenty of ones to make change. I told everyone to bring $3 for a game, but I didn’t specify that it had to be ones. Thankfully, I knew Miles had a secret stash with plenty of ones. Seth was our winner and took home $51.
After the games were over, we hung out in the kitchen listening (and dancing) to music. Darrin was our DJ. I think music make every get together better. It’s safe to say that we will have the 2nd Annual Hornet Friendsgiving next year. This year will be hard to top, but we’ll give it our best shot.
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