9Sops Christmas Party 2008

We attended the 9Sops annual Christmas party for Jay's squadron on Saturday. It's always the first Saturday of December since he's in the reserves and most of their squadron is made up of part timers who are only here for the training weekend, which is always the first weekend of the month. The last two years it was held at AJ Spur's, which we love, but his squadron is grown and so we can no longer fit into their banquet room upstairs so this year it was held at Pea Soup Anderson's. I didn't realize it, but they have a really nice banquet room that is HUGE! It's decorated beautifully with a big Christmas tree and lights and wreaths and there was plenty of room for everyone. The folks in charge of the party did an amazing job as usual. There were several games a the beginning of the party to determine which table would go to the buffet first. They had a Christmas movie trivia game, which was a lot of fun! Next, we had a sheet with photos of Christmas songs (for example, a bunch of snowflakes in a square = Let it Snow) and we had to guess the name of each song based on the pictures. They were not easy! There was also a pair of pantyhose and some balloons....these guys will do anything to humiliate one another! The food was good as well. It was a buffet with Prime Rib, some sort of breaded chicken in a lemon gravy (very low cal!) and mashed potatoes, green salad, onion bread, steamed veggies and dill potato salad. I really liked the salad and the bread and the fill potato salad. After the buffet they had the annual elf suit fund raiser. They have this elf suit that belongs to the squadron and every year they hold a fund raiser to raise money for future events for the squadron. You can buy a vote for $1 and the individual (usually a large man) who gets the most votes must wear the elf suit for the remainder of the afternoon as well as hand out gifts to the kids. The competition was close as usual and there was one leader until the very last second. There was also a 50/50 raffle (buy raffle tickets and whatever the pot is at drawing time, the ticket winner gets half and the squadron gets the other half). The 50/50 winner put his entire winnings towards his pick for the competition and so the winner was declared. It's always great fun and everyone that has had to wear the suit has been a good sport about it. They also had all kinds of raffle drawing prizes (movie tickets, gift cards) and some games and prizes for the kids. All in all, it was a really fun day.

Donelle, Kim (with Sophie and Abby), Alicia and Me!

Kendall had to sit with the Leonards. I guess they're more fun than we are!

"Antlers"

Chief Huntsman is a very good sport!

Kendall had to have her picture taken with the elf

Col. Vengal giving the elf some love

You have to get your photo taken with the cut-outs at Anderson's. I think it's the law