* Groundhog Day, February 2nd, is a popular tradition in the United States.
* It is also a legend that has survived centuries, its origins clouded in the mists of time with ancient cultures and animals awakening on specific dates.
* Myths like Ground Hogs Day tie our present to the past when nature influences our lives.
* The Groundhog comes out of his hole after a long winter sleep to look for his shadow. If he sees it, he regards it as an omen of six more weeks of bad weather and returns to his hole.
* To our American forefathers, the ground hog was thought of as a most intelligent and sensible animal and therefore the people of Punxsutawney decided that if the sun did appear on February 2nd, so wise an animal as the groundhog would see its shadow and hurry back into its underground home for another six weeks of winter.
* Punxsutawney Phil (the ground hog who tells the weather) first made his appearance in 1886.
* During Prohibition Phil threatened to impose 60 weeks of winter on the community if he wasn't allowed a drink.
* Phil traveled to Washington DC in 1986 to meet with President Reagan.
* Phil appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show in 1995.
* Punxsutawney Phil also starred in the Hollywood feature “Ground Hogs Day” opposite Bill Murray.
BELIEVE IT OR NOT JEOPARDY: Divide the guests into 2 teams....make a "game board" with poster board and post it notes. Have general cooking questions, questions about your company, just whatever you'd like to have talked about in your class....the game can be as long or as short as you'd like just adjust the number of questions. Give the winning team GREAT party favors and the second place team lesser favors, but give something to everyone...It's been a huge hit at my parties!!
CREEPERS AND SLAMMERS: Good for large groups too! Sitting at a table, having people on either side of you and across from you. Divide your group into two teams. One team at a time takes a turn passing a quarter under the table carefully so that the people across from you on the other team can't see where the quarter is. Then at any time the other team that doesn't have the quarter tells you to stop! They either yell "CREEPERS", All the people on the team that has the quarter must bring both hands up on the table and slowly try to open their hands with their palms down trying not to allow the quarter to drop loudly. The opposite team tries to guess where the quarter is. If the opposite team calls "SLAMMERS" then everyone on your team brings their hands up quickly slamming them down with palms down and open. The other team tries to guess who has the quarter. Just take turns until you are tired of playing. It is a lot of fun and everyone can join in. The winner is the team with least number of guesses to find the quarter.