Remember this couple from the French Party this past June? Well, Kimberly and Ryan are at it again by throwing a Christmas Party that Pat or I will ever forget.
When I received the invite to attend this party I was super excited, and with the mysterious meeting place being at the 96th Subway stop on the west side, I knew this wasn't going to be your normal mix and mingle gathering.
Just as I anticipated, once everyone had assembled Ryan proceeded to tell us that we were going to be distributing the "White Elephant" gifts, that we had all brought, to random people on the street, as we made our way back to their a apartment. The "game" was, that we would walk along the side walk until someone found a person that they thought would enjoy opening a gift. Once that person was approached and congratulated on being selected, everyone would line up in a line and hold their gift in front of them. The lucky person then could pick any gift they wanted and open it in front of us. After they opened it we would all cheer, wish them a Merry Christmas and start the search for our next lucky victim.
I can't tell you how fun this was, and of course being in NYC we got some pretty avoidant responses when we approached someone. They couldn't understand that we were not selling anything or that there were no strings attached to the gift. We selected some pretty awesome people though, from a little Hispanic boy in a barber shop to an elderly black lady who was out for a stroll.
I think my favorite person we selected that night was a lady with her little boy. When we were explaining the process to them and congratulating on them on being the lucky winners, the lady was a bit confused and asked us if we belonged to a church. We really didn't know how to answer, because we all belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints, but this was not a church function. So, we all hesitated and said "Well...we are all from the same church but this is not a Church function." Then she asked "Are you all Mormon?" We couldn't believe it! We were all blown away that someone would be able to call us out on our Mormon-ness. We had a good laugh about it and then went on our way as she left with a pie crust decorator and a Pyrex bowl.
When the presents all ran out, Ryan and Kimberly magically had Christmas tree decorations. We all decorated a sad little tree to being the Christmas spirit to a Harlem street.
Just when we thought the night couldn't get any more fun we entered the Simmon's apartment---aka a magical, colorful, Christmas wonderland. They had all the ingredients you could ever think of for flavored hot chocolate and yummy yummy treats. We played "Reverse Charades" where instead of having your team guess what you are acting out, your team acts out the word or phrase and one player has to guess.
I think my favorite person we selected that night was a lady with her little boy. When we were explaining the process to them and congratulating on them on being the lucky winners, the lady was a bit confused and asked us if we belonged to a church. We really didn't know how to answer, because we all belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints, but this was not a church function. So, we all hesitated and said "Well...we are all from the same church but this is not a Church function." Then she asked "Are you all Mormon?" We couldn't believe it! We were all blown away that someone would be able to call us out on our Mormon-ness. We had a good laugh about it and then went on our way as she left with a pie crust decorator and a Pyrex bowl.
When the presents all ran out, Ryan and Kimberly magically had Christmas tree decorations. We all decorated a sad little tree to being the Christmas spirit to a Harlem street.
Just when we thought the night couldn't get any more fun we entered the Simmon's apartment---aka a magical, colorful, Christmas wonderland. They had all the ingredients you could ever think of for flavored hot chocolate and yummy yummy treats. We played "Reverse Charades" where instead of having your team guess what you are acting out, your team acts out the word or phrase and one player has to guess.
When I saw this picture above, all I could think of was
Mr. Hugo Peabody (aka Ryan) in Bye, Bye Birdie shown below.
It is hard to pick a highlight of the evening, but if I had to one of the highlights of the evening was being selected to carry out the tradition of the "CHRISTMAS JELL-O." You might be asking yourself: "What is the Christmas Jell-o?" Well, we had the same question when we were selected. The story goes like this: A few years ago the Simmons were hosting a Christmas party, which included a nice Jello sculpture. Apparently, our friend, Stanton, asked if he could throw the Jello out of their 5th floor apartment window. The answer was yes, and every year since then, they have thrown "The Christmas Jello" out the window.
After we took pictures with "The Christmas Jell-o" in front of the Christmas tree, Pat had the honors of the Jell-o toss. As Pat made the deposit, the entire party waited in silence as the Jell-o made it's way to it's final resting place, five stories below. Surprisingly, the Jell-o make a very loud "kur-plop," which was followed by cheers, shout for joys, and Merry Christmas's. I wish this was a tradition I could steal, but I think the fun of the tradition is the tradition was not planned and just happened.
It's really too bad that these pictures could not capture the magic of the night. But then again,
I don't think any amount of pictures or writing could accurately depict the fun we had.
