The Command Christmas Party

The brilliant mind behind this year's Christmas party combined the children's and adults' party into a series of events over a single day, with great success.  She managed to secure a hotel ballroom with a buffet dinner for the grown-ups, pizza and child care for the kids, and a night's stay at the hotel in the Outer Banks for only $50 per family.  (It was $65 for E-7 and above, but still.)  An additional, adjacent room with a connecting door was only another $59, so we went for it (yes, that's party, dinner, babysitter, and 2 hotel rooms for $109)  so that Brandon and I could have a room to ourselves.

The day started with a meet and greet with Santa at a fire station near the hotel where we would all be partying and staying the night, followed by a tour of the fire house.  Elora covered her face as we were walking up to Santa, and hardly took her hands away they whole time she sat with him.  Kaylie was fine at first, but started screaming as soon as she realized I wasn't right next to her.  (I didn't get a picture of it, but I think someone else did...I'm looking forward to seeing those pictures!)

I wasn't surprised that Elora went all super shy with Santa, but I thought she would be more excited about seeing the fire truck.  I guess she was a bit overwhelmed by the all the people there, like she was on Halloween.  See the picture in the bottom left?  Brandon had to get down on her level because she wouldn't speak above a whisper.

This was Kaylie's favorite part: exploring the textures on the back of a uniform.

Back at the hotel, they'd arranged for one of the guys to dress up as Santa and give presents (provided by the parents) to each of the kids.  From the time that we left the fire station to the time that we went to see Santa again, she asked about Santa almost constantly.  

"Where is Santa?"

"Are we going to find Santa?"

"Is Santa lost?"

"I want to look for Santa!"

This is what happened when we got to Santa.

Elora covered her face again (the silly girl) and Kaylie started screaming immediately. 

In case you're wondering, Elora got a Sid the Science Kid microphone from "Santa".

The adults' party kicked off at 7.  Did I ever mention that the party was 80's themed?  Oh, well, it was. 

A lot of the people there went all out for the 80's theme.  There were several pairs of brightly colored leggings worn with leg warmers, mini skirts and boat neck, off-the-shoulder tops.  I normally love to get into costume, but in this case, I'd had my heart set on wearing this sexy little black dress that I found at a thrift store months ago.  (It represented my initial get-healthy goal: slim down and tone up by the night of the Christmas party, so I could rock that dress.) So I went with 80's inspired big earrings and bracelets as a nod to the theme, but wore my dress anyway.  Brandon wore his shirt un-tucked, popped his collar, and wore his sunglasses all night.

The party itself was great.    There were raffle drawings done all night (we won an 80's themed package with a rubix cube and an Atari shirt, among other things) 80's music blaring through the speakers, and a slide show of movie clips, commercials, and photos from the 80's.  The food was good, the company great.  We're such homebodies that we rarely interact with the other families, but it's silly because I really like them a lot. 

There was much silliness, as I'm sure you can imagine.  There was a cash bar, after all, and some of the guys brought stuff with them.

During the party the kids were looked after in a suite of rooms right down the hall from the ball room.  They got to eat pizza, watch movies, and for those old enough, do an art project or two.  Brandon checked on them regularly, but I made myself stay away.  I'd given my number to one of the sitters, and told her to call me if either of them needed anything.  So long as they were happy, I didn't want to risk making them unhappy by showing up and then leaving again.  I am still nursing, though, so I did go back once to feed Kaylie, but even then, I tried not to draw Elora's attention.  Both girls did just fine until we picked them up and headed back to our rooms at about 11.

Good times.