I Need Your Brain!

[Spem in alium]

Well, not really...

At the end of December the postulants in my congregation celebrate their feast day. My formator is preparing a surprise for me, and I want to do something for my sisters (it will likely be only an in-house celebration). I had the idea to write a poem about all the members of our community in the style of a limerick (connecting with my Irish roots!) but want to also organise some kind of game or maybe a small gift or token for each of them. There are 8 other sisters in our house.

I'm a little limited in what I can do, as I'm the sole postulant, but would love your input --- any ideas for gifts or games?

 

[He is Risen!]

In the community that I was in, I remember for a celebration a sister making each of us a bookmark.  On one side she painted a flower and on the back she wrote our name in a sparkly pen and under that a passage from scripture, the Catechism, or a spiritual book that was personal to us or that she thought would inspire us.  She laminated them with clear contact paper.  I still have mine and it gets lots of use.

[McM RSCJ]

I made up this game and have played it successfully with different groups of Religious and also with family across a good age spectrum.  Lots of laughter and enthusiasm!

You say there are eight besides you.  Ahead of time you make up a series of fun and/ore odd questions like:

If you were a fruit, what fruit would you be?

When you were growing up, what was your secret name or fake name or alias or whatever? 

If it were up to you, in what country would you have been born and in what century?    Et cetera.

Then all you need is small sets of eight papers and eight pens and bag or basket to collect the answers one round at a time.

You draw out a response, one at a time, and read aloud with fanfare of course.  (You probably will recognize the handwriting but you don't let on.) 

Example:  POMEGRANATE!

Then everyone tries to guess who the Pomegranate is. . . .

It is up to you whether or not you want to put your own answers in.  I've played it both ways.

What can be amazing is the silly answers people give.  For example, once the fruit drawn was "ORANGE."  No one in the room could guess who would be an ORANGE.

Finally the culprit 'fessed up with a sad and fated affect:  "It's me.  I don't even like oranges.  But that's what I'd be. . . . "

 

Try it!

[Spem in alium]

5 hours ago, He is Risen! said:

In the community that I was in, I remember for a celebration a sister making each of us a bookmark.  On one side she painted a flower and on the back she wrote our name in a sparkly pen and under that a passage from scripture, the Catechism, or a spiritual book that was personal to us or that she thought would inspire us.  She laminated them with clear contact paper.  I still have mine and it gets lots of use.

Oh, I love this! I did something along those lines last year for one of our congregational feast days. I thought and prayed for each sister in our house and then wrote a word/a verse from Scripture in calligraphy and framed it. Some of them still keep theirs in their room. A bookmark would be nice!

 

3 hours ago, McM RSCJ said:

I made up this game and have played it successfully with different groups of Religious and also with family across a good age spectrum.  Lots of laughter and enthusiasm!

You say there are eight besides you.  Ahead of time you make up a series of fun and/ore odd questions like:

If you were a fruit, what fruit would you be?

When you were growing up, what was your secret name or fake name or alias or whatever? 

If it were up to you, in what country would you have been born and in what century?    Et cetera.

Then all you need is small sets of eight papers and eight pens and bag or basket to collect the answers one round at a time.

You draw out a response, one at a time, and read aloud with fanfare of course.  (You probably will recognize the handwriting but you don't let on.) 

Example:  POMEGRANATE!

Then everyone tries to guess who the Pomegranate is. . . .

It is up to you whether or not you want to put your own answers in.  I've played it both ways.

What can be amazing is the silly answers people give.  For example, once the fruit drawn was "ORANGE."  No one in the room could guess who would be an ORANGE.

Finally the culprit 'fessed up with a sad and fated affect:  "It's me.  I don't even like oranges.  But that's what I'd be. . . . "

 

Try it!

Just to clarify, each person gets a different question, or they all answer the same question one round at a time? It sounds fun! I may need to restructure it a bit or consider how best to involve everyone as some of my sisters are not confident writing in English and one is going blind and can't write at all. Maybe I could organise a few prizes and have her be the prizegiver.

I'm thinking that with my limerick I will have some small token to give each sister based on what I say about them. For example, one sister likes to dry dishes, so I might get her a new tea-towel. Just a little thought.

[sr.christinaosf]

I'm doing a little Christmas "gift" for each of our residents and workers.  The front has a nativity background with the scripture quote: "They shall name Him wonder-counselor....Prince of Peace"

on the flip side, it has their name, it's meaning, and a scripture quote...It was a fair amount of work, but hopefully meaningful and worth-while.

[Sister Leticia]

22 hours ago, Spem in alium said:

Just to clarify, each person gets a different question, or they all answer the same question one round at a time? It sounds fun! I may need to restructure it a bit or consider how best to involve everyone as some of my sisters are not confident writing in English and one is going blind and can't write at all. Maybe I could organise a few prizes and have her be the prizegiver.

You could give each sister the questions in advance, telling them they're all sworn to secrecy, and to return their answers by a certain date. Maybe you could have two or three different sets of questions, so there will still be some surprises on the day. You could sit down and do it with the sister who's going blind. Don't tell them what it's for, obviously, just observe an enigmatic silence!

And don't forget that fancy dress and friendly competition always add more hilarity to anything! So here's a further suggestion for the quiz:

Collect about a dozen things which can be worn: sunhats, scarves, shower caps, aprons, one of those novelty Christmas stockings, flowers or tinsel which can be worn as a garland or a kind of crown, bows, paper hats etc. Your family or the staff in your care home might be able to lend things? Make sure it's an incongruous/funny/sparkly mix of things.

Before the quiz hand out 8 of them to each of the community (and get into the spirit by wearing something silly or sparkly yourself!) Keep the remaining 3 or 4 for yourself.

Divide them into 2 teams. Make sure your superior and formator are in different teams.

Now... ask the first question. The person/team which answers correctly can then take an item of clothing away from someone on the other team - but then has to wear it. After a few questions you'll end up with someone wearing two hats, or a Christmas stocking on one foot and tinsel draped around her shoulders, and even more giggles and laughter. At the end of the quiz, the team wearing the most items wins.

The extra items are in case one individual or a team tries cheating or coercing or otherwise out of hand - you penalise them by giving an extra item to the opposing team! (And believe me, they might well start trying to cheat if the competition is close!)

 

And a good game to play if your sisters are dexterous: again, divide them into 2 teams. They have 5 minutes to build a tower using uncooked spaghetti and marshmallows. The tallest unsupported tower wins!

[Spem in alium]

1 hour ago, Sister Leticia said:

You could give each sister the questions in advance, telling them they're all sworn to secrecy, and to return their answers by a certain date. Maybe you could have two or three different sets of questions, so there will still be some surprises on the day. You could sit down and do it with the sister who's going blind. Don't tell them what it's for, obviously, just observe an enigmatic silence!

And don't forget that fancy dress and friendly competition always add more hilarity to anything! So here's a further suggestion for the quiz:

Collect about a dozen things which can be worn: sunhats, scarves, shower caps, aprons, one of those novelty Christmas stockings, flowers or tinsel which can be worn as a garland or a kind of crown, bows, paper hats etc. Your family or the staff in your care home might be able to lend things? Make sure it's an incongruous/funny/sparkly mix of things.

Before the quiz hand out 8 of them to each of the community (and get into the spirit by wearing something silly or sparkly yourself!) Keep the remaining 3 or 4 for yourself.

Divide them into 2 teams. Make sure your superior and formator are in different teams.

Now... ask the first question. The person/team which answers correctly can then take an item of clothing away from someone on the other team - but then has to wear it. After a few questions you'll end up with someone wearing two hats, or a Christmas stocking on one foot and tinsel draped around her shoulders, and even more giggles and laughter. At the end of the quiz, the team wearing the most items wins.

The extra items are in case one individual or a team tries cheating or coercing or otherwise out of hand - you penalise them by giving an extra item to the opposing team! (And believe me, they might well start trying to cheat if the competition is close!)

 

And a good game to play if your sisters are dexterous: again, divide them into 2 teams. They have 5 minutes to build a tower using uncooked spaghetti and marshmallows. The tallest unsupported tower wins!

Oh those are tremendous ideas! Thank you! 

I also thought of a "Who Said It?" game, where sisters have to guess if a quote was written by a Pope, our foundress or our Provincial. The celebration is also for her, as she is being transferred, so I wanted to do something for her especially  

[McM RSCJ]

It is delightful for me to see that Sr. Leticia and I, who belong to the same Congregation but haven't met (that I know of) share the same sense of fun for a community party. 

By the way, Spem, I hope you feel free to spice up that "Who Said it?" game also.

Example:

Oh-oh, we're half way there!

Oh-on, livin' on a prayer

Pope?

Foundress?

Provincial?

Bon Jovi?

[Spem in alium]

2 hours ago, McM RSCJ said:

It is delightful for me to see that Sr. Leticia and I, who belong to the same Congregation but haven't met (that I know of) share the same sense of fun for a community party. 

By the way, Spem, I hope you feel free to spice up that "Who Said it?" game also.

Example:

Oh-oh, we're half way there!

Oh-on, livin' on a prayer

Pope?

Foundress?

Provincial?

Bon Jovi?

That is hilarious! I don't know how many of them know Bon Jovi (at least one probably) but it would be soooo funny!!! 

I would also like to do something nice for my formator, but not entirely sure what. One sister suggested I give her a gift, but I wanted to organise something more. Will keep thinking. 

[Sister Leticia]

 

4 hours ago, McM RSCJ said:

Oh-oh, we're half way there!

Oh-on, livin' on a prayer

Pope?

Foundress?

Provincial?

Bon Jovi?

Or what about:

Love me tender
Love me true
Take me to your heart
For it's there that I belong
And we'll never part.

Prayer of your foundress to Jesus when she made her vows?

Elvis Presley? (I'm sure they've all heard of him!)

 

If you're going to play the quiz with questions about which fruit/tree/historical figure, then do answer some yourself - it'll be interesting to see how well they know you! And in case anyone is wondering: obviously, people can't answer the question which they know has their answer, and shouldn't tip off their team-mates - that's when you have to be firm and hand over an item of clothing to the opposing team.

McM - clearly, we share the same charism