elf yourself!

Last night we went to Tricia and Brock's third annual Christmas party.

Each year the party is based on a Christmas movie. In years past it has been The Christmas Story and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. This year it was our personal favorite: Elf.

Now, if you've never seen Elf some of these pictures will be lost on you.  However you should be able to feel the level of dedication to the costume tradition and the fun had by the movie-based trivia game.

To summarize for the Elf uninitiated:  Elf is a movie about Buddy the Elf (the hilarious Will Ferrell) , who has been raised by Elves only to find out at age 30 that he is a human.  He takes his elf upbringing and childlike spirit to New York City in search of his father, a workaholic man who isn't very nice and happens to be on the Naughty List. Hysterics ensue.

Our hosts:

This was the first year Kristi and Michael made it up from Beals Island to attend.

The whole gang:

There is a scene where Buddy, who is 6 '3", sits on Papa Elf''s (his adopted Elf father) lap. 

Sandi went as an Elf and I went as a gift "For Someone Special."  Buddy in all his childlike innocence buys his father a negligee in a department store simply because the display says it is for someone special.  So yes, I dressed in a negligee.

The trivia game is a very serious undertaking.  Trish asks the questions and Brock is the official judge and score keeper, utilizing a loose association of fairness as his guide.  There was even a final question, jeopardy style, with wagering and everything.  This year's game included dancing, making up stories, reciting lines from the movie verbatim or simply answering questions about movie specifics that varied in three levels of difficulty. 


There was a lot of thinking going on.

And conferring over answers.  (Yes there were two nuns at the party.)


Here is where I will say that our team won the game.  Sandi and I had made flash cards and quizzed each other all week.  We knew how many cookies Buddy had put in the VCR (11), at what age Papa Elf made master tinker (490) and how many etch-a-sketches Buddy was off pace when making toys in Santa's workshop (915 for the day).  What can I say?  We are slightly competitive.

Trish was dressed as Leon, the North Pole snowman.

Trish, sitting next to her first completed puzzle- "electric sex" from The Christmas Story.
























I tried flying solo on the cake making.  Let me just say I learned a lot.  I worked on it for 7 hours (all while the kids were gone or asleep) and it was so fun for me, bumps under the fondant and excessive butter cream in the layers and all.

The three sisters and their husband, fiance and partner.  This picture makes me feel so fortunate for such love

and fun in our lives.

There are 4 food groups for Elves: candy, candy corns, candy canes and syrup.  There is a scene from the movie where Buddy makes breakfast for his family which consists of pasta and maple syrup.  On his own he puts marshmallows and crushed pop tarts as well.  We were sent home with goody bags with pasta (ours was whole wheat), syrup, pop tarts, candy corn, candy canes and, our favorite, the 2011 mix of Christmas music.  Trish and Brock know how to throw a party!!  It makes me so sad that we have to wait until next year to do it all again!