Fifth Sunday

'Everybody' came to our house today for lunch after church. (Chili and cornbread).

We played a new game that Jessica and Matt had played before; they didn't have a "real" name for it, so we decided to call it Fifth Sunday. That is the kind of name we'll remember, because it was a Sunday of course, and because it begins with five 'things'. . .

There were six of us playing, we had three teams of two. Each person writes down 5 things on individual pieces of paper. They can be just about anything: a name of a person, place, thing, or an activity , a book, a movie, a color, a type of fabric, etc. The only rule regarding this is that at least one other person in the group can verify that what you wrote is indeed a real book, person, quote, etc. One thing that makes this so much fun is that you can list something that is meaningful in your family or friends circle - someone's favorite hobby, a quote from a crazy aunt, a very specific vacation spot or past home site, and so on.

Some examples from our game: (Matt's:) Luxor, Wolfchase Galleria (one of our local malls), Firefox, Linksys, The Bourne Identity. (Jessica's:) Daniel Faraday, Bozo the Clown, etc. (Mary's:) Harriet the Spy, Eva Gabor, etc. (Christopher's:) Osaka Japan, Islets of Langerhans, Fidel Castro, etc. (Danny's:) The Monkees, Doc Holiday, Jed Clampett, etc. (Mine:) velvet, Better Homes and Gardens, etc.

FIRST, you throw all the pieces of folded paper into a box , bowl, whatever. Then it's like taboo or password: A partner gives their teammate

clues to the item they drew randomly...... they are timed (a minute) and each correct guess is worth one point. That team keeps the 'pieces of papers' that they get right.

This keeps going until all the pieces are gone - and if it comes around to a team a second time, you switch clue-giver / guesser.

Write the score for this round of the game.

NEXT, all the pieces of paper back in the pot, another team goes first, and THIS time, one team member acts out (charades) the item listed. This is funnier and maybe easier, because you've heard all the items at least once, and players may act out something based on the previous clues given during the first part of the game. (example: something may act out ' Elvis ' because the clue for "velvet" was a painting / portrait of Elvis on black - ). Again, score one point for each correct answer when all of the paper is gone.

FINALLY: Last team goes first: they must pull out a piece of paper and give a ONE word clue. ONE word - nothing else. This is not as hard as it seems, either, because by now everyone technically knows all the "answers" - it just tests memory and creativity.

Just can't tell you how much fun I had playing even though MY team LOST. . .; the problem is that I was teamed with MattBabb. This (losing) doesn't really bother me (like it probably does him), even though it was entirely his fault. He would blame me FOR SURE, but we lost because when he is doing charades I am so entertained and laughing so hard that there is very little chance that I can think and come up with a correct answer. We were really doing well except for that portion of the game.

Jessica and Mary won by a landslide. . . and Danny and

Christopher took second. . . but I'm ready for a rematch!!