Navy Christmas Party (I Tried To Keep My Clothes On)

Like any company, the Navy (individual commands) seem to enjoy having an annual Christmas party. This year, the command here in Misawa, chose a rather inconvenient day to hold it. They decided to hold their party on a Thursday night. This same Thursday was also the night the High School and Junior High were having their combined Band, Choir and Drama Christmas show. So….there went over half of the available babysitters.

Normally, I would have just written off the occasion after 3 of the girls we knew that babysat told me they were not available. Nut then the Navy threw in something “special”. For $10, we could go to this Christmas party, be served a wonderful meal, be entered into a raffle for some really neat prizes, compete in strange games, dance…and…here is the big one…IF YOU CAME TO THE PARTY YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO GO TO WORK ON FRIDAY!!!! So…I called around and finally found one teenager not involved in any of the school activities and was not grounded!

It was a pleasant night. We didn’t win any of the raffles but a friend from Brandon’s shop that was sitting at our table one an I-Pod. One neat thing was I was able to meet two of the people Brandon worked with in Bahrain. Because Bahrain and Misawa are the same command for the Navy (I don’t understand it but it is) they flew out one of the sailors stationed there who was nominated for Sailor of the Year. They also sent a Chief along with him, probably to keep him out of trouble. It was neat to meet people he worked with. The sailor actually won Sailor of the Year and that was exciting. What Sailor of the Year does for him, I have no clue but he got a nice glass statue thing for it.

Then came time for fun and games. They asked for volunteers to come up, not telling us what for. Stevens, the guy that won the I-Pod and Brandon went to join the other 8 in the front. They had to sing a few lines each from a Christmas Carol. It was funny. Some of them had no clue what the songs were. Then for the next game, they asked for one person from each table to come up. Brandon and Stevens had been quite embarrassed by being made to sing in front of everyone so there is no way they would volunteer. The other sailor that we knew at our table had his girlfriend visiting from Tokyo and she is Israeli and her English is a bit hard to understand…sooo, they didn’t volunteer. That left me and a brand new to the navy (as in just a few weeks out of school and boot camp) and one of us had to go.

Fine. I went. It turns out the game was a scavenger hunt. Every round they removed one chair and you had to make it back to a chair holding the item they just called for. Everyone was in simi-formal clothing so there were no bulky purses full of “stuff”. They wanted lip balm, hair clips (I actually had to take one out of my own hair for that), a Military Credit Card, a restaurant punch card (get a punch for every meal you buy, the 5th meal is free), an ATM receipt, a government issued pen, hand lotion, gum, and 5 pennies (and we don’t use them here in Misawa, they round up or down because shipping them in would cost too much). Things were going great until about half way through. Everyone was rushing around to other tables trying to get them offer up what they were looking for and I was headed for my own table when one of the Officers that we actually go to church with pulled out his chair, catching the edge of my pants leg under it. I didn’t notice so I kept moving. Then I noticed! The chair was pulling down my pants! I quickly dropped to the floor and didn’t know what to say. This was an Officer but we have a personal relationship with his family through church and the fact that I watch their children a few hours each week. Things are much more relaxed here in Misawa. In Norfolk, if was frowned upon for enlisted sailors and officers to mix socially. Here, because it is such a small base and even smaller Navy community, its not so much an issue. So, I screamed at him, by name, trying to be heard above the crowd. He noticed me on the floor and did not understand the whole pants issue, so he reached down to help me up. Not happening! The pants would just come off again! We were able to get it all situated and I was surprised to see that I made it back to my chair with my item before the last person. With a lot of running around, I made it to the final two….and then won!!!

I was excited and tired. Our prize? I won a $20.00 gift card for every person sitting at my table! It was a blast other than the whole, “An Officer Tried to Get Me out Of My Pants” thing. He and his wife stopped by our table later and I was able to explain fully what happened. We were both very much embarrassed. When we got home, we found that the sitter had been able to not only get Joey to eat all his dinner, pick up his toys and get into his PJ’s but that he was actually asleep! I was amazed! It was a good night and we enjoyed the dancing and the food.