More Christmas Games

Tonight after getting my door knob replaced (yeah!) myself and another teacher who is staying up here for the holidays ventured down to the Christmas Games at the gym. Tonight, the Northern Store was 'hosting' the games ... and there was prizes, candy and toys flying all over the place.



In the Knot untying game, if you rolled a one on the dice you got to run to the middle and untie one of the knots in the rope. Who ever unties the last knot wins the game.



In this game, we had to roll a two to be able to run to the middle and un-tape a nail before hammering it into the chunk of wood. Who ever is the lucky one to hammer in the last nail wins the game.

Garbage Bag Twisty Game

One of the games played tonight at the games I've dubbed the "Garbage Bag Twisty Game". Essentially, a garbage bag (or two) is tied together into a figure eight shape and with a partner you have to pull the bag from your head down your body and then pass it on to the next team. Which ever team has the bag when the music stops is out.

The Go Find Game

At least that is what I call it. In this game, all of the kids, 7-9 are given instructions to 'find' certain objects in the crowd. It could be mittens, a quarter, a red sneaker or a Toronto Maple Leaf's logo. I always enjoy watching this game as the kids just scramble all around the gym spying who ever might be sporting the required element.

Arctic Jig

Tonight I ventured down to the community gym where our Christmas Games are going on. The games were being 'hosted' by the Hamlet tonight, which were primarily for the kiddies although, later on in the night it does switch over to 16+ games and a dance.

While I was there, I got to watch my first (I know, how sad is that??!! I've been in the Arctic 1.5 years) 'arctic jig'. It's more or less like what we do down on the East coast ... minus the techno-squeezebox music.

More Christmas Games

Tonight I ventured back out to the Christmas games with all of my batteries charged in all of my equipment. Good thing, as I stayed until 11 pm taking pictures and video.

The first game that we played tonight was for the 15+ group, where we had a Nerf Arrow Gun, and we had to shoot and hit a stuffed Barney toy. Well, I was just planning to be a spectator so I could just take pictures .. but, eventually my resistance was warn down by the locals and I was convinced to take my shot at Barney. What's the worst that could happen right? Well, I hit Barney square in the head (don't know who to thank ... all of those years playing Duck Hunt on the Sega, or the years of playing Caps while in residence). In either case, I moved on to the second round. And then the third round, where it was between myself and one of my students. After many attempts and many tense moments, Barney was dead. His life was snuffed out in such a violent way, by yours truly. My reward (er... prize)? A 50$ Gift Card for The Northern (sweet! I can buy yogurt now for school!).

Next, there was another game for the 16+ crew (I did sit this one out as I didn't have mittens with me). In this game, there were two circles, the inner circle was wearing one mitten with the other in a pile in the middle, while the outer circle had to do all of the work. Both circles walked around in opposite directions of each other while music was playing. When the music stopped, the outer circle had to drive / crawl between the inner circle member's (that was in front of them) legs, grab a mitten, find it's mate and then crawl between that person's legs and then sit down. The last team to sit down is eliminated. This game went on for quite some time, but it was very amusing to watch.

After, there was a game for just the men (+16). This game involved them rolling a dice trying to roll a magic number (I think it was 4). If they rolled a 4 they got to run to the center of the circle to try to unscrew as many screws from a block that they could before the next person rolled a 4 and bumped them out. This game was very similar to the catalog game that I played last night. The prize? A wicked power tool set (I could use one of those).

Next there was a game for just the women (+16). This game, which turned more violent than I think the organizers planned) involved us racing against each other (two people at a time) hitting a balloon down the gym with a 2x4 and placing the balloon in the garbage can at the other end. Well, we were not only hitting our own balloons, but also the balloons of our opponents, we here hitting each other with the 2x4's, and basically playing hockey at times while trying to get our balloon in the garbage can and at the same time, trying to get rid of our opponents balloon.

There were also two other games for the older community members (+16) as well as several games for the elders.

At the end of the night, before the dance, there were finally some games for the younger kids who were in attendance. The girls got to play a dance type game and the boys had a scavenger hunt. As I was leaving, the elders were just beginning to play one of their games where they had to put together a puzzle as a team as quickly as they could.

It's been pretty interesting up here in Arctic Bay during the Christmas Games. Most of the community members were quite surprised that I was still here, as last year, there was a mass exodus at Christmas time with the southern teachers. One asked if I was the only southern teacher that stayed up here as they commented that I was the only one that they ever saw out anywheres since school got out for the holidays. I explained that no, there were actually many of us still here in town, but that they were all taking some down time, contacting family ..... They asked about me, I said that I just email mine to let them know that I'm alive. They laughed.

Christmas Games in Arctic Bay

This evening, I ventured out with Aletha to the Christmas Games being held in the community / school gym. I wasn't too sure what to expect before arriving, but I am glad I went tonight. I have some pictures of the games , but my camera battery died early on, so I'll post up the ones I have and I'll be posting more throughout the week.

When we arrived, they were just getting started with a dice game, where we had to roll a large foam dice and not roll a 5. If we rolled a 5, we were out. This continued until there was only one person left, and they won a prize.

The next game was a traditional one for the younger girls (7,8,9) where they had to squat down, with one leg stuck out and the other one tucked under them and then switch legs over and over again until there was only one person hopping.

Next was a game was a traditional game for the boys (7,8,9) where they had to leg wrestle each other.

After, was another 16+ game where we had to rip as many pages out of a catalog as possible if we rolled a number 4 until the next person rolled a 4 and took over the page ripper position. I ripped out a total of 60 pages from the catalog. Most of them on my first run out to rip pages.

There were also games for the elders, one of which they had to not make a face after a teaspoon of lemon juice was put on their tongue, and another was a numbers game.

The older kids had a game where they had to put their feet and their arms in their jacket sleeves, and race down the gym floor on their hands and feet squawking like a raven. It was quite amusing to watch (sad that I don't have footage of this game, as it was a hoot!).

The last game that was played before we headed out was a scavenger hunt type game for 16+ (I sat this one out). They had to find people or items that were called out to them by the MCee. It was quite a challenge to figure out what items they had to find as it was all in Inuktitut, but I was able to guess the gist of what was being searched for based on who or what they brought back into the circle.

I'll be heading back to the games tomorrow to get more pictures and maybe film some of the games to send home for the kids to see.