Christmas 2006

 


 

First the dinner...



Akiko had prepared many delicious items, such as the Black Forest cake shown on the right, an apple cake, and more ...

These treats did not last long...



Many pictures were taken.


No Christmas is complete without gifts:


Everyone was asked to bring a gift of cost $15 or less (we'll see soon that there were many smart shoppers in the crowd)
Each gift was assigned a number, and a drawing decided who would get to unwrap which box
But, not necessarily could the unwrapping person take that gift home - because an unwrapper with a lower number would be able to force a gift-switch with a higher numbered unwarpper


Julia "won" this aroma glow device



Wei won the "World's most difficult jigsaw puzzle" (1000 dalmatians)


Julia thinks she has the easier present



Hui won this robotic dinosaur, but since he drew #15 he was worried till the end if he'd really was going to be able to keep it.



Miki won these plates.



The gift winner and the gift giver, Lujin   
   Fang also won a jigsaw puzzle - let's see if he can reconstruct this object.


Shengying had to search hard for her box, but now she has this stress-relieving squeeze ball.



Lujin won herself a dating opportunity (with her onlooking husband, so we hope): two movie tickets




Julia's looks on with joy as her boyfriend wins another gift for her.



Aili wins a snowman cookie jar - I expect that on her desk in the new year.



Wei Dong wins a note book wih Japanese lacquer cover writing (further explained by Hui) - perfect to keep track of the hot stock on Wall Street.



Yumiko won a locked box of candy - she needed to use a key to open it. She says she will wear the key on her key chain.



Akiko wins a seasonal cup and saucer - ideal for her early morning hot chocolate.


A Chicken Little doll for the math wiz.



I (Klaus) won a "relaxation fountain"



It had to be assembled first and filled with water, but then it worked beautifully. I am already very relaxed.


Then we all had time to play with our presents.
(Everyone was very happy with what they had won, and nobody opted to trade with a lower numbered person. A no-tears event).


After this playful period, we played a murder-mystery game...

The game goes as follows:Everyone draws a secret card (here a paper plate), labeled either with 'people', 'murderer', or 'police'. There are only 2 murderes and 2 police, the rest are common people. One person is a moderator.
Now all go asleep (the moderator stays up all the time but cannot help solve the mystery).  

    Now the murderer(s) wake up and agree on one person to be killed.
Then the murderers go asleep and the police wake up and point at a suspected person. 
This suspicion is then either confirmed or not confirmed by the moderator. 

  Now the police go asleep and soon all wake up and they discover the ugly truth: this night another person was killed.
Now the villagers deliberate who did it. Accusations are made, which the accused seek to diffuse. In the end the most likely suspect is terminated, at which point the flipped-over card reveals if that person was indeed the murder (or not). In the latter case, another murderous round begins.

 


Last update: December 25, 2006
http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~mueller