Posts Tagged ‘family party’

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It has been reported that Facebook continues to build strong engagement statistics . AllFacebook announced that the number one social network is now gathering an average of 143 pages viewed per user, every month. This represents a huge lead over other web properties.

Our family knows about engaging websites that draw us back time and time again. For the past 4-years we have gathered online to share gifts and conversation for a few days before Christmas.

We all live in different parts of the country so we can only get together on the internet. Our family game makes us feel closer when we can’t gather in real life.

Here are the statistics of this engaging party:
… 11 players participated for 19 days.
… 789 comment visits were made to the party page
… 67 pictures where gathered from Google images where linked to the party.
… 37 videos where gathered from YouTube into the activity.

It is not possible to know the actual page views that the game creates, but we each spent a great deal of effort and time to stay engaged.

It is a great blessing that the internet has provided us the opportunity become engaged with any of our family and friends, and the latest numbers from Facebook is just one more illustration that we all want to stay connected.

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

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Are there any other people who are experiencing what Sarah and I are living through? Are there other stories like ours?

Twenty-five years of child-rearing trained us to pay attention to the lives of the five unique personalities placed in our care. We spent our time between watching and participating in the developing story of our children’s lives. We helped write the first few chapters, but now they author their own stories, independently and from a distance.

I must believe that many other moms and dads of grown children are experiencing and struggling with a similar change in roles… From story director to story observer.

There is a feeling of loss at first. Not only of the physical presence and the missing sounds of young voices, but of the missing responsibility that comes with actively directing the story for so many years. There is a realization that the independence that you promoted for so long has turned on you, and left you only to watch what happens next.

It is hard to sit on the sidelines when for so long you have been in the middle of the action.

What can be done?

The answer lies in the realization that watching and participating in the life story of our family doesn’t end at the empty nest. We learn to contribute from a different perspective and find ways to add value to the growing stories being written in other locations.

In our case, it involved building an electronic mimic of our family room, where everyone could join for a few hours of conversation and fun together. This is a place where mom and dad can electronically watch and participate in the story again. An internet family night, if you will. A web-based party like those we hosted in our family room many times before.

Our family game will never take us back in time or fill the house with the sound of childrens laughter… But for a few days during the party, we can enjoy the familiar arguing between our children. We can experience the humor and the cleaver banter of our new “in-law” children, and witness some of the stories that they are all now telling.

For a short period of time, their lives join with ours on the pages of a website, in an activity that promotes telling stories and sharing fun as a family.

As far as I am concerned, that is the great story that we share with you, and we plan to stick with it…

NOTE: I was inspired to write this story from a post that Jim Gilmartin contributed to the Media Post organization concerning the Baby Boomer Generation.

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

Hosting any event requires determination and ingenuity. We appreciate the efforts of a party host who takes the time and energy to pull off a great social experiences.

We really give a tip of our hat to the host who goes the extra mile to make the party memorable for everyone involved. It is amazing how even the small differences can make a huge change in the level of fun and engagement at the party. It is the host’s responsibility to find the “little extra” that will turn the party into a social explosion.

One of the galvanizing aspects of any group event involves joining attendees together in a common activity, like a party game. These activities are proven social bonding tools that turn mundane events into great social experiences.

Our family uses the gift exchange format to add a spark to our gift giving parties and create unity. But this year we went a bit further and added just another dimension to the fun.

On the day of our Christmas Eve party we invited all of the attendees to meet us at the local Goodwill store, just before coming to the event. We suggested that if they had not purchased a gift for the exchange, that this would be a good time to find the perfect present…

But we had another surprise in mind.

We asked everyone to shop for a silly hat to wear to the party, and it would be our treat.

The hat selection was fabulous and the variety was amazing ( it is interesting to realize that someone paid retail for some of these at one time!). The store was soon filled with laughter as our guests discovered hats and then modeled them for anyone who would pay attention to them.
Down several isles of the store walked grown men with furry or floppy hats, still displaying the price tags. Women that were trying on hard hats and football helmets were giggling like school kids.

The party had started at Goodwill and the excitement was spreading.

The regular store customers and clerks were entertained by this odd display, and our guests were getting into a very festive mood. We didn’t even need to ask the group to continue wearing the hats as they made their way up to the checkout, they just kept them on and delighted the other shoppers.

These unusual hats became the uniform for our party and added a social-glue among the participants of the evening’s activities.

The hats cost about $2.00 a piece, but their value as a group bonding tool was priceless. It created a memorable event for those who attended.

We take our hat off to the host who takes the extra steps to build a better party experience for family and friends.

What have you done to add something extra.?

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists

The Christensen’s of McMinnville are not going to get arrested for helping friends and neighbors steal gifts from each other this year. Their family has been stealing from each other in an online white elephant gift party for the last 3-years. Now they are sharing the fun on Facebook, so everyone can start gift swapping this season.

You have probably played one of the White Elephant Gift Exchange, or Yankee Swap games during the holidays in the past. It is the gift party where everyone brings a fun wrapped gift, they put the gifts in a pile and then they take turns opening, stealing and bantering together.

The Christensen’s have figured out a way to mimic this same activity in social online networks, like Facebook. They call their online white elephant party, AlbinoPhant, a party application, hosted on Facebook. The unique thing about AlbinoPhant is that you use real gift images in the game and then those real gifts are delivered to your door after the completion of a party.

AlbinoPhant is just like the traditional gift swap party, and can be played from any Internet connection. This means that family members from all across the country can join the party without leaving their homes. This will be helpful for tight family budgets this year.

White elephant parties allow families to stay connected and share gifts with each other in a lively atmosphere of fun and games. With the enhanced sharing tools on the web, the online version allows more expressive conversation than ever before. A steady stream of AlbinoPhant comments allows party participants the opportunity to post YouTube videos and images to assist in participating in the fun. There are even opportunities to share some of the conversation outside of the party in other social networks, allowing the party atmosphere to spill over to other corners of the web.

The online gift exchange is a labor of love by the Christensen family. Sarah Christensen, a mother of five and grandmother of seven, shares her love of the game by commenting, “When our youngest left home three years ago, we missed our family gift exchange party so much we started doing our party online.” And Bruce Christensen added this comment, “We visited more in 19-days while we were playing, than we do all year, because of this party”.

The Christensen’s hired a team of Facebook developers and other web professionals to take their simple family party and turn it into a fully operational Facebook application. Their entire family loves this game and is thrilled to share it with others.

Their family won’t find themselves in jail this Christmas, but they are excited to be spreading gift thievery and lively banter well beyond Oregon this holiday season by playing AlbinoPhant.

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PartyWeDo
The AlbinoPhant Creators
Your Party 2.0 Specialists