WAR RIDGE W.Va. (Hinton News) – On Friday, Dec. 20, 2024, the War Ridge Free Will Baptist Church held a “Gingerbread Day” for the kids in the Kids Club. the fun-filled day started at 10 a.m. While waiting for everyone to arrive, the kids played a game of “This or That.” “This or That” is played with a ball of yarn and a bunch of sticks with two pictures on each stick. The first child draws a stick and decides which item they like best and asks who agrees with them. They then wrap the yarn around their back at the waist level and roll the yarn ball across the circle to someone who agrees with them and wrap the yarn around their back. The yarn continues to be rolled to the next person across the circle until everyone who agrees has wrapped the yarn around themselves. Another stick is drawn and the play continues. The kids basically tie themselves in knots over whether they like one item better than another (see picture).
Once everyone arrived the kids got untangled and proceeded on to the rest of the day’s activities. They started with a craft and decorated a small jar with tissue paper, a silhouetted Nativity and a tea light turning it into a lighted lantern. They then played “Rudolph’s Nose Dive” while waiting for lunch to be served. They enjoyed a lunch of walking tacos, chips and cookies and then played “Elf Sneeze” while waiting to start building and decorating their gingerbread houses.
Although some of the kids had no issues building their gingerbread houses that was not the case for everyone, several kids had structural problems with roofs sliding off and houses and chimney’s falling down. One of the kids had a wall collapse and during salvage operations, the wall broke into pieces. Not to be outwitted by a minor construction challenge she stated that it was an accident scene and all was well (see picture).
Once everyone had their gingerbread houses decorated they retired to the game room to play “Who Wrapped This,” where they unwrapped a cling wrap ball filled with candy and small toys while wearing oven mitts (see picture). They had 30 seconds to try to unwrap some of the goodies before they had to pass it to the next person. The ball continued around the table until the final prize in the middle was claimed.
The rest of the afternoon was occupied with more games, including the Left/Right game where the story of the first Christmas was read while kids passed unopened gifts either to the right or to the left depending on what the story said. The kids completed a snowman ornament craft and each child iced and decorated a half dozen sugar cookies. The kids were picked up at 4:30 by parents glad that someone else entertained them on their first day of Christmas break.
The final picture is of the entire group of kids with their completed gingerbread houses. A special thank you goes out to volunteers Bonnie Galford, Crystal Matney, Penny Matney, and the “referee” Charles Osborne who all helped keep the person with this crazy idea somewhat sane.
