In February I had the priviledge of participating in the annual Spouse's Dining-In. The Air Force has throws these fun events for spouses or couples from time to time as a morale booster. It's a fun opportunity to get out of the house and let their hair down (or pin it up in the case of formal dining-in's.)
This year's event was pretty unique. The theme was beloved stories. Each squadron or group on base had several women participating, and we each picked a book or story as our theme. It was our job to come up with table decoration, costumes, and skits based on our book. At first, I was a little unsure of whether or not I wanted to participate. But I am SOOO glad I did because everyone went above and beyond with their themes and it was incredible seeing the level of detail and creativity that went into every table and costume.
The theme the head table of command spouses chose (and was therefore reflected the over-all ballroom decor) was Harry Potter. I'm a huge Harry Potter fan so I was very excited when we arrived at the Enlisted Club and were greeted by a big sign on the doors welcoming us to Platform 9 3/4. Inside, a forest of christmas trees were decked out with owls and spiderwebs creating a magical pathway to the ballroom doors. Inside the ballroom, the common spaces were decked out in all kinds of magical decoration. The bar was labeled as The Leaky Cauldron (a pub in the book), and behind the head table were the four Hogwarts house banners.
To add to the fun of the event - they had some silly rules that everyone had to obey. For example, when the chimes sounded at the start of the event we had to stand by our chairs in silence and wait for the head table to be seated. We were not allowed to clap - instead we had to rap our spoons on the table. There was no discussing work or complaining about husbands and kids at the table. If you were caught breaking one, you were either sent to Azkaban prison (pictured below), or you were sent to the grog and had to take a shot of the witches brew. Each table had to contribute a bottle of alcohol or juice or tonic and poured it into a big cauldron to create the grog. I think there must have been a recipe that went into the selection of the bottles we brought because people said it didn't taste too bad. I'm just thankful that they provided a non-alcoholic option for those like myself who don't drink.
Thankfully our team was well behaved and was only sent to the grog once for "underage drinking". Why, you ask? Because we were all dressed in our best 80's teenie-bopper attire in honor of our book
Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume. No, I did not have a hand in selecting this book that's all about the awkward teen years and going through puberty. But, I have to admit that it provided some fun inspiration for our costumes and table decorations. High ponytails, scrunchies, crimped hair, giant glasses, plastic jewelry, over-alls, way too much make-up... The list goes on and on. One of our girls actually had her old flute from high school and took the case as her purse so she looked like a total band geek. Personally, I was in tapered jeans with a jean jacket over a sweet floral turtle neck. People admired my crimped hair and side ponytail quite a bit. I was trying my best to look unattractive, but apparently I failed and people thought I was the popular teen girl. Crazy!
Our tablescape was ridiculous. Apparently they had two visiting generals judge who had the best table decorations and we made them
very uncomfortable. Our centerpiece was covered in artfully placed feminine hygene products. Each chair had a training bra pinned to the back. And our place cards were old, embarrassing of our pre-pubescent selves. It was outrageous, slightly humiliating, but ultimately funny among other ladies. We all got into character quite a bit too - squealing in a high pitched voice whenever something exciting happened. I was a little worried that we would be the most obnoxious people there - but believe it or not, we were pretty toned-down compared to other tables.
We had a ton of fun for the first twenty or thirty minutes, just making a circut of the room and admiring everyone's work. Here are some pictures of some of the other table themes:
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| Alice in Wonderland. They had giant playing cards on their chair-backs. |
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| Percy Jackson and the Olympians. This certerpiece was inspired by Poseidon. |
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| Obviously - The Wizard of Oz. |
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| My favorite table - a viking ship from How to Train Your Dragon |
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| It was also fun seeing the costumes and how people were getting into character. Becky Jantz, on the right above, is normally a very sweet person but very much embraced her Pirates of the Caribbean persona. She is pictured with our squadron commander's wife Jenn in her best teen attire. I love the yearbook photo pose! |
The primary event planners, who served as our MC's for the evening, were three witchy sisters. They kept us entertained with songs, games, witty limmericks and a few good-natured jokes about the different groups participating.
The planned entertainment was hilarious. The head table played a game of quiddich on rolling office chairs. Some of the skits were clever. But I think the best part of the night was when people improvised and started joking around on a whim. At one point, the witches were singing a song up front. Then the two people dressed as Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum from
Alice in Wonderland ran up front and started dancing with them. Then Grandpa Joe from
Charlie in the Chocolate Factory joined in. Our commander's wife couldn't resist jumping in as well. I think I almost fell out of my chair I was laughing so hard.
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| Our team's skit about teen girls "praying" for more curves. Unbelievable... |
I hope you enjoyed your foray into the antics of military wives. Living in a small town in Japan gets a little dull sometimes so we have to come up with creative ways to entertain ourselves. Over all, I think this was one of the most memorable and fun events I've participated in at Misawa. I can't wait till next year's event!!
