Samurai Christmas Party

Thursday night was the annual Samurai Christmas Party at the Grand Komaki Resort in town. Since James is still considered one of the junior members of the squadron, he was assigned the task of organizing it and served as our MC for the evening. I was a part of a team of six other women who made the reservations, set up the catering, sent out the invitations, put together door prizes and decorated the room. Most of them had one or two specific tasks. For example, Lisa came up with the evening's black and gold color scheme and put together our stunning centerpieces. But I just kind of helped wherever people needed it. I also got to be the official photographer and document all of the fun we had!

Me and the good-lookin' MC. =^)

Our Money Tree (a fun raffle game). Only in
Japan can you find a black Christmas Tree!

Bonzai, our Samurai mascot, even got
into the Christmas spirit!

The many incredible door prizes we gave away.
We rigged it so that our enlisted guests won the big-ticket items.

One of the things I did was put together a box of
quality prizes for each person at the two tables
that would later win the party games.

Lisa's incredible centerpieces. Those are fresh-cut evergreen
branches and flowers combined with gold accents.

The flower arrangement below was my favorite.
See the gold leaves wrapped around inside the vase?

It was my job to take formal portraits of each couple that wanted a photo. We found a cool Japanese-style nook in the back of the room and went nuts. One of my favorite things about events like this is seeing get all dressed up. The couple in the top left hand corner of the collage below is our squadron commander Aaron Steffens and his lovely wife Jenn. I still can't get over his yellow tux jacket. SO cool!

I also got to take the official group photos.

Our meal was provided by the hotel staff. It mostly consisted of traditional Japanese dishes and lots of sushi, which I wasn't a huge fan of but it sure looked pretty! They did have a fabulous dessert platter of pineapple slices and little rectangular cakes, though.

One of James' tasks was coming up with some fun games or activities. The first one we played was a Christmas carol relay race. One member from each table had to run up to James, who gave them the name of a popular Christmas song. They then had to play a quick game of charades to get their table to guess the name of the carol and lead them in singing it until one of the judges gave them permission to move on to the next song. The first table to complete four rounds won. It went much more quickly than we thought it would, but people seemed to think it was fun.

The second game was sort of a mix between musical chairs and a scavenger hunt. One representative from each table brought their chair into the center of the room. Then James called out the name of a common item that people usually carry with them (like an ID, camera, or lipstick). Then they had to run back to their table, collect it, and then run back to the center of the room. The last one back would not have a chair and would therefore be out. We were impressed with how much people got into it! You can always rely on a room full of fighter pilots to be competitive. ;^)

The final event of the evening (before the last of the door prizes were given away) was a song. James wrote some special lyrics for a Christmas classic, so he and the other wingmen in the squadron could serenade us with The 14 Days of Christmas. It began: "On the first day of Christmas the Air Force gave to me..." and then they listed off lots of silly or irritating things they deal with at work. He also managed to convince the base wing commander, Col. Mike Rothstein, to join them. It was hilarious and everyone seemed to appreciate their creativity.

Over all the night was a big success. James and I joked that we felt like it was a wedding - lots of planning and stressing over details, then rushing around that night to accomplish our goals, trying to say hi to everyone, and neglecting our food. hahaha. Oh well. It was worth it! Any excuse to dress up and celebrate with friends is fine by us!