New Year's Party - Games!

I spent a lot of time trying to come up with some fun games for the New Year's Party that were a little different than the same old games like Charades and "Catch Phrase" that nearly everyone has played before. Our "Best Answers" game was something new we tried this year... and it was a hit with nearly everyone, I believe!

We prepared a number of questions that required thoughtful answers, like,

~ "What influences in society led to the Holocaust in Germany?"
~ "What are the differences between gas and diesel engines?"
~ "What will you do if you are alone, away from a phone, and a child in your care has eaten
poisonous mushrooms?"
~"Name four of the presidential candidates and their respective states from each party's ticket."

We split the approximately 30 young people into five groups and sent each team to separate rooms to try to create the best answer to the question. All the teams received the same question at the same time. The answers (consensus of the team) had to be turned in on paper within 5 minutes to a panel of judges (the parents) who evaluated them based on their correctness, originality, practicality, clarity...
Whichever team's answer won received a point....

The judges doing some serious deliberation... is it better to be completely correct, or to explain your answer thoroughly?

And the winning team is....
Judge Janusz presents the winning team with a package of chocolates

The party was winding down, when we began dishing up ice cream.
Some looked on skeptically. "We're going to do what?"

A few brave souls agreed to participate, and allowed themselves to be bibbed and blindfolded.
They seated themselves across from their chosen parter, each with a cup of ice cream...
Ready, set, go!
The race was on! Which pair would finish feeding each other all of the ice cream first?

Eric and Max finished first, albeit rather sticky and chocolatey!