The annual GT Speed Christmas party was off with a bang on Dec 20. The day was clear and sunny and the skaters came in sleepily, some still in pajamas. They soon woke up, however, with all the fun activities we had planned

Danielle bobs for bubble gum.

The first game was the Balloon Relay. OC and Derek, the team captains, quickly chose up sides. The game was played by lining up in a large relay line, dashing down the floor, grabbing an inflated balloon, running back down the floor and sitting on the balloon. The 'pop' of the balloon was the 'tag' for the relay partner to begin their rush down the floor for the next balloon. Derek got off to an awful start, skating in unfamiliar territory on quads gave him quite a disadvantage. His team was not discouraged however, and they managed to come from behind and beat OC's team by the skin of their teeth (or balloon as the case may be). Derek chose Chance Martin as the teams Most Valuable Player since he had a very creative way of bursting his balloon.

The funniest game was the "Bobbing for Bubbles" game, which had 20 skaters digging in a plate of whipped cream for a piece of bubble gum (no hands), then chewing the gum and the first person to blow a decent bubble was the winner. The only problem was that the sugar in the whipped cream deactivated the bubble gum, so they had to get all the sugar out of the gum before it would blow a bubble! Such fun! As you can tell from the photos, Danielle and Derek both really got into this game.

The dodgeball game was so much fun, we had to play it twice. Christie Brookshire was the winner of the "Guess the M&M's" game with her guess of 999 M&M's in the jar. The actual amount was 1080.

Yeah sure, Tish. Great gift.

The gift grab was a lot of fun, especially considering the creativeness of the gifts. The older skaters had a new twist to their "competition" ...they had race to the gift pile for the opposite sex and then exchange with someone else to get the right gift. We think that the most creative gift was that of Katie "the Queen" Heffelfinger.What do you think?

Throughout the morning, we ate a lot of snacks and punch and had a really good time. We missed those of you who couldn't make it, and those of you that have moved away. We hope each and every GT skater and their family (past and present, near and far) have a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year. We expect you all to come back in the new year ready to skate off all that turkey and work hard to get ready for West Palm!

For the rest of the Christmas party photos, please visit the photo page.