6019

Family Party & Belly Dancer

March 2003

Sandra in San Miguel, NM USA

Hi,  My husband turned 43 in December 2002 and I turned 40.  We had a family party for about 50 people.  Our menu consisted of roasted pork, with and w/o red chile, brisket rice and beans and coffee and hot chocolate along with other cold drinks.  The meat was cooked in an underground pit at my dad's house and everyone raved about it.  We hired a DJ and he played a variety of tunes begining from the 1950's all the way to 2002 hit songs that defined the decades.  It was mostly a decades party.  The favors were old-fashioned candy from our childhood, can be found in Cracker Barrel gift shop restaurants or online.  I bought inexpensive goodie bags and filled them with popcorn, old fashioned candy stickers, peanuts etc.  The outside of each bag had inexpensive photos of both of us and our families and friend from childhood to adulthood.  Each table had a decades theme 1950's, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000-.  The bags also had historical facts and figures pictures of current events from each decade era, fads, and the like.    I also made a list of hit songs for each decade and placed them on the tables so the guests could request songs for the DJ to play.  I asked the DJ ahead of time if it was o.k. and he was really great about it!  I provided some music CDs myself in case he didn't have any, or any "must play" songs we wanted.  The colors started out as black but I expanded to silver, blue and purple.  The guests had a blast and are still talking about it!  I also hired two belly dancers as a surprise for my husband, it was a tasteful and flirtatious dance.  They were wonderful even the kids enjoyed it!  The dancers knew it was a family party so it was not in any way "only for adults" dance.  I treasure the pictures of the guests with their reactions on their faces.  My husband was very surprised and he enjoyed it. It must be payback time for me!  Oh no!    The invitations had pictures of our parents.  I actually found one of my  mother pregnant with me!  It also had pictures of us as kids, at 20something and then cartoon drawings of us as 40something but with no heads.  I put a caption that read: "You will just have to be at the party to see what we look like now!" wanted.  It worked out very well.    Our guests really enjoyed, the music/dancing, the food, and the bags.  People were having friendly fights over the bags and the juice bottles we had on each table that had balloons attached to them.  The juice bottles looked like champagne bottles.  These are available at any discount store or  grocery store.  The place we had it allows no alcohol so that is why I used these bottles.  It was a recreation center owned by the city at minimal or no cost to use.  It also had pool tables and foosball tables that the teens loved.  The rec. center had a fabulous kitchen with  freezer, fridge, ice machine, stoves, ovens and a hot line to keep food hot/warm at all times.

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