Fishbowl

Just saw this in my drafts and realized I never posted it. Don't bother reading this unless you want to learn a new game...

Okay, two people have asked already what fishbowl is so I'll just post it for convenience sake. Its definitely my favorite game although that opinion can change dramatically based on the group. I'll explain later...
First, everyone in the room writes down a person, a place, and a thing. Think creatively, otherwise its a bit boring. Each item gets written down on its own little piece of paper and thrown in a bowl. Grab a second empty bowl.
Then, choose a partner and put everyone in order around the room, so that you're spaced evenly. (this can be confusing. Number the teams and then split up and sit in numbered order)
Round 1. Each person gets 1 minute and you explain each word in the bowl (without saying any part of the word) to have your partner guess what it is--think Catch Phrase. Once you've counted up all the words guessed, put the papers in the second bowl. If someone chooses to pass on a difficult word, that's 1 point deducted from their total. Each person around the room takes a turn until all the words are emptied from the first bowl.
Round 2. Continue around the room but this time you get your partner to guess the words by doing charades. Sometimes round 2 starts in the middle of someone's turn. As soon as the first bowl is empty, the person starts drawing from the second bowl and doing charades.
Round 3. As soon as all the words have been emptied from the second bowl, start round 3 and this time you get to say one word to have your partner guess. Only one word! Remember, these are the same words you've heard 2 other times so you have to pay attention the whole game or you'll forget easily.
The game is over once the first bowl has been emptied again. This is a great game for a big group because then you get some good variety. If you have little kids playing along, you can divide yourselves into two teams, rather than partners, and sit every other person (again, that's like catch phrase).
One important point- make sure the things written down are things everyone in the room would know. One particular game we played with my extended family, a certain uncle of ours kept writing down the most obscure things from the Civil War, or something like that. The first round it was some aircraft carrier. So we all explained clearly that it needed to be something we would have all heard of. So the second round, we find in the pile "ADM Nimitz". First of all, none of the girls even knew that ADM stood for Admiral, let alone who the heck Admiral Nimitz was!! We were just baffled. When Bethany drew that one, she said "Adel, DeSoto, Minburn". (Thats the name of a highschool around here) to represent the "ADM". Anyway...this is probably one of those "Guess-you-had-to-be-there" stories :)