One of the things we started a few years ago is to have a Christmas party. It's always a "Dirty Santa" party. If you've never heard of that it's a party where everyone brings a unmarked present and they are put under the tree. Then everyone draws a number. Number one gets to pick a present first. The second person can then steal that present or pick a new one. That goes on until the last one chooses. One present can only have three owners. After the third owner it can't be stolen again and it stays with that person. If not for that rule, we would be playing until two in the morning every year.
We always invite people from the house church that meets in our house and encourage everyone to invite someone new. Last night we had our party. Four new people participated who had never been a part of our house church before.
We let the little guys go first and just trade their presents. Dirty Santa would get pretty ugly if we let the 1, 2 and 5 year olds play.
Then the adults play and start picking the presents.
Some people steal and end up with just what they wanted. Like Carys, and her chocolate.
Others aren't so lucky. Like Flavia (in the pink shirt) and her machete. Yes a machete.
Actually she lost the machete as it was stolen. Twice. What was given as a joke ended up being a serious present. I love this picture because of the fact that everyone is cracking up. This is one of my favorite pictures from the party. The smiling and laughing by everyone is a great snapshot (even if our snapshots were all blurry for some reason last night) of what these nights are like.
Then you have people that just surprise you. On the left is our neighbor. It was her first time to play. She picked these blue Christmas hand towels. She immediately said, "I hate these towels!" She was hoping to keep anyone else from picking them. She was a quick learner as she figured out that if you show joy with your gift then someone is sure to steal it.
Her gift was stolen. She was then reminded that she could get her husband to steal it back and it would be theirs to keep. Only thing was he didn't want to be a part of the plan. He's the one in the blue shirt right across from her. He finally agreed after she took off her shoe and threatened to throw it at him if he didn't go along with it.
There is always someone that surprises you and it's always fun.
I think the thing I like the best is that we, as a house church family, get to be Christ to people who are coming for a fun Christmas party. What a great way to share the love of Jesus.
We had a great time.
No comments:
Post a Comment