That’s me…second from right

The summer of 2010 was a milestone for my husband and me; we both turned 40 years old.  Rather than wear ourselves out blowing up black balloons we decided to hold a fun-filled, nostalgic celebration with friends and family.  We asked everyone to dress in a costume reminiscent of the 1970’s, 80’s or 90’s, and we were thrilled when most of our guests complied with hilarious get-ups and hairdo’s.

Our menu was inspired by our own childhood favorites from the 70’s:  cheese fondue, Ritz crackers with Easy Cheese and a Budding ham cheese ball, Ruffles potato chips with Lipton sour cream and onion dip, pigs in a blanket, mini pizzas on English muffins, deviled eggs, cocktail meatballs, and vegetables with Hidden Valley Ranch dressing.  We served Tang and RC Cola to wash it down, and dessert was a large sheet cake adorned  with peace signs and yellow happy face symbols.

For entertainment we divided men and women into two teams and played a simplified version of 1980s Trivial Pursuit, using questions my husband had carefully chosen ahead of time for a humorous blast-from-the-past.  We also “roasted” ourselves by interspersing several little-known questions about our past with funny multiple-choice answers among the other questions.  Everyone had a great time and learned more about us through questions relating to our childhood, teenage years, dating relationship, family lore and little known weird trivia.

Whenever someone answered a question correctly they won a  prize reminiscent of the era, such as a carton of Jiffy Pop, a Chef Boy R Dee Pizza mix, a Whatchamacallit candy bar, or a package of Pop Rocks.  Favorite prizes included a Richard Simmons VHS tape, old record albums, and favorite childhood books such as Nancy Drew and Hardy Boy mysteries.

*This post first appeared on Mentoring Moments for Christian Women