8:02pm - Kids are arriving and things are starting to get loud. Some of the musically gifted kids have been jamming for about an hour. What talent!
8:10pm - Why didn't I bring a camera? I could be putting pictures up. Oh well.
8:18pm - We have kids (and Collin R.) playing Guitar Hero 3 in the lobby while the worship band does a sound check in the auditorium. There are kids playing catch with a Nerf football, ping-pong, and talking. We're hoping to start worship around 9pm.
8:34pm - Video game run-down: We have a PS2, an Xbox, a Game Cube and a Wii all in the same room (the South Foyer) on different TVs. Newcomers have to run a gauntlet of gamers to register and get in the building! Of course you have to censor which games the kids bring as too many of them are way out of bounds for this kind of event. But right now the guitar games, racing games, and Wii Sports seem to be breaking the ice for us tonight.
9:09pm - We have somewhere between 65 and 75 people here – I get a different count every time and some of the adults are just getting here or not staying.
9:12pm - Worship began a little bit ago. The kids are all standing in the middle, some of them worshipping, some just standing awkwardly. Oh, the painful awkwardness of being a teenager. I think they'll mingle better after worship is over and they play some ice-breaking games.
9:45pm - Worship just ended; Jay-rod and the others (including his little brother) did an awesome job! Group games in fifteen minutes! Mass chaos 'til then.
10:20pm - Jay-rod and Kyle have the kids playing some funny games. While the kids were in the main room, I spied four women, Tina S., Cherie S., Melissa B. and Ashley B., bowling on the Wii out in the foyer. Everybody loves the Wii.
10:58pm - It's time for dodge ball!
12:01am - Happy New Year! We just finished an hour of dodge ball. I'm a mess, so I'm going home to take a quick shower.
12:58am - Okay, that was a bad idea: go to warm, cozy home and take a hot shower at 12:30 in the morning. It's pretty hard to get back out in the snow after that. When I returned it seemed that everybody was still going strong. But I haven't talked to the kids in the basketball tournament yet.
2:00am - The kids are still playing but things are beginning to get sluggish. Just four hours left, but I'm not sure I'm going to make it. Jay-rod and the other sponsors have done a great job, this year seems really well done.
2:23am - I just got knocked out of knock-out.
3:03am - Lots of people are playing cards and board games. In fact Dustin is trying to explain "In a Pickle" to me as I blog right now. Somehow learning a new board game at three in the morning seems harder than it needs to be. But maybe that's just Dustin.
4:07am - Most of the kids have been playing Human Foosball for the last hour (imagine the arrangement of Foosball figures but life-size with people confined to a folding chairs and hitting/kicking the ball without getting up). Few if any are sleeping but the pace has definitely slowed to a crawl.
4:24am - Okay. I hit the wall. The tank is empty. I'm done. The kids are in good hands and will be going home soon. But I'm going now. I'm still intending to work later today.
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