AFWA Spouses and Airmen's Group: November 2009

Hi friends,

I'm having some difficulty with the new calendar application I used to use when it was called "2nd WS Spouses"...all I thought I needed to do was move the calendar events to the new one but now there are all sorts of problems. For this I apologize.

So here is a summary of upcoming events, and I plan to have this back into our calendar in about 48 hours. Since several of these events are happening this week, I figured I'd better get everything summarized for us, hopefully "something" is better than "nothing":

Monday 23 November @ 2:30pm: Decorate the AFWA Atrium for the Holidays. Join AFWA members in this holiday tradition.
Wednesday 25 November @ 6:00pm: Preparations for Thanksgiving Meal for AFWA Shift Workers (led by 2WS and 2WS Spouses). If you have signed up to bring desserts or beverages, you may drop them off at this time at the AFWA Atrium, or stick around and help with decorations. POC = Dawna Jones.
Thursday 26 November @ 3:00pm: Thanksgiving Meal for AFWA Shift Workers in AFWA Atrium/Lobby area. POC = Dawna Jones
HAPPY THANKSGIVING & BLACK FRIDAY
Tuesday 1 December @ 6:30pm: Monthly AFWA Spouses Social, AFWA Atrium. Knitting/crocheting lessons will be offered, if you're working on your own projects, bring them and join us in just having a fun social time. Bring a recipe-worth of cookies to share with the group with recipes, we'll trade recipes and prepare goodies for the Airmen in the dorms. We'll also have signup sheets for making MORE cookies for the 4 December AFWA Tree Lighting Reception, plus cookies or cupcakes for the Children's Party.
Friday 4 December @ 3:00pm: AFWA Tree Lighting Ceremony, AFWA Atrium. If you signed up to bring cookies, bring them to the event or else send them in with your AFWA member the day of the event. The spouses are providing cookies and punch.
Thursday 10 December @ 6:30pm: Cookie and Ornament Exchange/Holiday Social at Susan Murphy's house. Bring 10 (yes, TEN) dozen cookies, half will go towards the children's party, if you've signed up for cupcakes instead, feel free to bring just 5 dozen to exchange with the ladies. Bring an ornament for a "White Elephant" gift exchange.
Friday 11 December @ 6:00pm: AFWA Childrens' Holiday Party, AFWA Atrium. Details can be found here: http://2ndwsspouse.blogspot.com/2009/11/blog-post.html. The Spouses' Group will provide Cookie exchange cookies, plus cupcakes for a cakewalk. If you can't make either the 10 or 11 December events, feel free to send in cookies/cupcakes with your AFWA Member on the 11th.
Friday 18 December @ 6:00pm: AFWA "Adult" Holiday Party, Bellevue Knights of Columbus Hall. Details are coming (I'm waiting for my husband to send me the announcement off Sharepoint to share with you).
MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HANAUKKAH, HAPPY KWAANZA!
Tuesday 5 January @ 6:30pm: Monthly AFWA Spouses Social, AFWA Atrium. Time for our semi-annual new baby blanket construction! This is a fun project and is easy to sit and catch up with each other while keeping our hands busy making "Taggie"-style fleece baby blankets, perfect for Nebraska! Last August about 8 of us turned out 6 beautiful blankets in 2 hours!

So...if your head is swimming with all of our upcoming events, you aren't alone. Mine is too! Feel free to add these events to your calendar, and hopefully this week I'll be able to return to the RSVP-able messages. This helps us manage who will/won't make it to events.

Thank you,
Patricia Vollmer

For the AFWA Spouses' November Social, the ladies brought donations for care packages AFWA was preparing for each and every AFWA member who will be deployed over the holidays. We had 14 people donate items, and we prepared a whopping 16 boxes!

We had a great time continuing to get to know each other, while sending our thanks to members of the AFWA family sacrificing time with their own families this holiday season.

First, we had to get things organized. We used the tables in the AFWA Atrium to loosely organize items. Here's Susan, Dawna and Lily working with the baked goods and nuts:

From 2009 11 03 AFWA_Spouses_CarePackages

Here's Susan and Miram getting the beverage powders set up:

From 2009 11 03 AFWA_Spouses_CarePackages

After the items were organized, we got to work assembling boxes that we could walk around the tables, putting in a variety of items. Here are Cindy and Connie assembling a box, and Nicole choosing items to include: