Celebrating with Neighbors

We had an awesome neighborhood Christmas party last night. It was an all afternoon and evening affair, yet mindful of the fact that we all have loads of children and church the next morning (although it was cancelled because of the snow, but who would have known that). Mary Beth described the party as "perfect" after it was all said and done.

It began with crafting for the kids...soldiers, snowmen, Christmas trees and ornaments. After that we played a little friendly trivia game...although from the looks of Riley it appeared that it was very important that she won. I wish we had a picture of her screaming the answers to questions--her face beet red. She was intense, which is not her usual nature.

Then the fun really began. We dispersed into family teams on a digital scavenger hunt around the base. Some of the items on the list were:

A live Nativity

A bowling ball wearing a Santa hat

A Security Forces Person giving the thumbs up

And an Ice Rink--gee I wonder where we might have found one of those?

Our family had a ton of fun zooming around the base looking for the 30 items. I say zooming, but that probably isn't very accurate, since the fastest you can drive anywhere on the base is 25, and many places it's even less than that. I should also clarify the "our family had a ton of fun" line. Everyone but Lucy had a ton of fun...she was not thrilled with the getting in and out of the van routine. Even buying a doughnut didn't change her mood.

We returned in 2nd place...yea for us! Then we all had pizzas, got the kids changed into p.j.'s and taught the kids how to do Tim Tam Slams. For those of you who aren't familiar with this, it's a chocolate explosion in your mouth made possible by using a chocolate covered chocolate wafer cookie as a "straw" with hot cocoa. When the cookie begins to fall apart, you slam the entire thing in your mouth...

The kids had a little trouble doing this, but they liked the chocolate. We then told them to relax and enjoy a movie (yeah, right) and the adults went into the next room to play a fun game. We rolled dice to earn the right to try to open the package...Here's the catch. While attempting to open the package, you had to wear this goofy hat, a scarf and oven mitts. Of course, the package was well taped, and once you opened the first package there was a second, and then a third, and then a fourth and so on until you have a plastic baggie with a gift card inside, wrapped with tin foil. Meanwhile, the rest of the people are still rolling the dice continuously around the circle, and if anyone rolls doubles, your turn is over and the new lucky roller gets a chance. Around and around you g, hoping for doubles.

Ted got a turn in the middle of the game

Cousin It got a turn shortly after Ted--oh wait, that's me...

and in the end I got another turn--the one that mattered most, and I reigned victorious with the $25 gift card to Best Buy. (although I kind of cheated just a wee bit at the very last getting the last bit of foil off with my teeth. Which I feel super guilty about, but don't really know how to rectify, so I guess maybe I'll go into retail therapy with my gift card.)