2010 Parker Holiday Party

We try to have a holiday party every year as an annual event, but with all the moving we've been doing we had taken a hiatus for a couple of years.  It was nice to get back into the groove this year with our annual party!  We had a great time celebrating with our friends.  We wished we had been able to invite more people but we were at max capacity with 16 adults and 7 kids! 

As a fun addition, this year we had a contest for "best secondary use" of the Marine Corps Ball party favor.  Every year at the Ball they give away a party favor.  This year's item was the talk of the island during ball season.  Here is this year's pick:

Looks okay at first glance, but looks can be deceiving.  It's pretty hard to screw up a keychain, but leave it to the powers that be to do just that!  First of all, while you can't tell from the picture, the keychain is ENORMOUS and weighs roughly 12 pounds.  And I am not exaggerating by much.  It's heavy!  Which renders it sort of useless as a key chain.  Paperweight?  Yes. Key chain? Not so much.

Secondly, just looking at it practically blinds one.  It has to be made of some type of supersonic stuff.  Add to it the super-powerful Okinawan sun bouncing off the bling, and I'm guessing that more than one Ball guest was blinded by it this November! LOL.

Thirdly (is that a word?), I'm not sure they really thought about the practicality of the keychain.  Junior Marines are not permitted to drive or own vehicles on Okinawa, which wipes out the necessity of well more than 50% of islanders to actually possess a keychain because they have no keys in the first place! 

But I digress.  So the point is, people have been making fun of this keychain for the better part of a month, and I haven't seen one person actually using it as a keychain.  Enter the contest.  We invited guests to come up with another use for the keychain.  While most had already thrown the thing away located a more permanent home for their beautiful keychain, some chose to participate, and I could kick myself for not taking pictures!!!

Personally, I chose to wear mine as a centerpiece for my chest (a.k.a. necklace, but that doesn't do it justice!).  Tommy rigged his up to be a redneck belt buckle, as did our friend Joel.  Alli and Matt hung theirs as ornaments from our Christmas tree, Yvette sported hers as extra-large earrings, and Nate won the grand prize by sewing it to his miraculously matching, gold-plated military cap.  You can catch a small glimpse of it in the picture above (bottom right) but I wish I had gotten a close up!

Anyway.  It was a fun time and Nate won a glass rooster filled with chicken-noodle soup ingredients for being "King of the Roost."  I mean, who wouldn't want to win that?  Plus, he can regift it at their next white elephant gift exchange :).

Happy holidays to you and yours!