Life Day Party 2018

It’s that time of year again!

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Beautiful decorating!

As always, it’s not a Chicago Force Party without FOOD!

 

And now this is the part of the party when we talk.

And what’s this?

It’s stealing, I mean, swapping gift time!

Life Day Party would be uncomplete without a game where we make terrible jokes. This year’s game of choice, Joking Hazard.

Life Day 2016 Recap

Another great Life Day party was hosted by Josh and April.

First, the food:


Now the posing and talking:


Next the gift giving:


And we end the night:

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Life Day Party Invite 2016

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It’s time for the annual Chicago Force Life Day party! Dinner will be pot-luck as usual so if you’re able to join us please indicate on Facebook what you’ll be bringing. We’ll also be doing a gift exchange/swap as we do every year ($25 minimum). Kids are absolutely welcome and if there’s snow there will absolutely be sledding. This is a great time every year so we can’t wait to see everyone. For the address in Downers Grove please contact Joshua Schschulte.

Book club will be taking place beforehand at the Stechschulte house at 4:30 and the book is Rogue One: Catalyst.

Life Day 2013 Pictures

Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.

Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.

Dan prepares to "fluff the beef"

Dan prepares to “fluff the beef”

Tie Fighter Crescent Rolls are ready for the oven.

Tie Fighter Crescent Rolls are ready for the oven.

Commence fluffing of the beef.

Commence fluffing of the beef.

Of course, everyone ended up in the kitchen.

Of course, everyone ended up in the kitchen.

Lencho was looking at the pretty pictures.

Lencho was looking at the pretty pictures.

Fresh from the oven! Yum!

Fresh from the oven! Yum!

A cute elf stopped by.

A cute elf stopped by.

Oooooooh!

Oooooooh!

Hmmm...what to eat first?

Hmmm…what to eat first?

I'm sure the beef will be ready sometime....

I’m sure the beef will be ready sometime….

You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy...until next year.

You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy…until next year.

All smiles at the holiday part.

All smiles at the holiday part.

Children gathered, presents gathered, time for the gift exchange.

Children gathered, presents gathered, time for the gift exchange.

Lucky number 7! Last to pick for the gift exchange.

Lucky number 7! Last to pick for the gift exchange.

Surprise! It's a Star Wars gift!

Surprise! It’s a Star Wars gift!

Another Star Wars gift.

Another Star Wars gift.

The unwrapping continues...

The unwrapping continues…

More gift exchange fun.

More gift exchange fun.

Wampa Claw!

Wampa Claw!

The carnage of the Wampa Claw continues.

The carnage of the Wampa Claw continues.

You do not want to be riding a tauntaun tonight.

You do not want to be riding a tauntaun tonight.

Another steal in the gift exchange, it pays to draw the last number.

Another steal in the gift exchange, it pays to draw the last number.

Life Day Party 2013

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It’s time for the annual Chicago Force Life Day party! We will be meeting at the home of Joshua Stechschulte on Saturday December 14th at 6pm.  Dinner will be pot-luck. We’ll also be doing a gift exchange/swap as we do every year ($25 minimum). Kids are absolutely welcome! Please contact Joshua on Facebook for the address.

Additionally we’re looking to donate toys for all the children in the tornado affected areas downstate. We be collecting NEW toy donations at the party.

Also, don’t forget book club will be at 4pm, we are reading William Shakespeare’s Star Wars:

"’Tis a tale told by fretful droids, full of faithful Wookiees and fearstome Stormtroopers"

“’Tis a tale told by fretful droids, full of faithful Wookiees and fearstome Stormtroopers”

 

5th Annual Line Party & Anniversary

May 15, 2004 saw the 5th Anniversary for this little thing we call Chicago Force.

It’s been a long and windy road, and it seemed only appropriate for this year’s Anniversary/Line Party to be held at the birthplace of Chicago Force, Zephyr’s Ice Cream parlor.

While the sunlight made things a little warm in the beginning, a good time was had by all. Zephyr’s puts on a good spread, and there was plenty of time for mingling, chatting, and playing embarassing parlor games.

Check it out.

4th Annual Line Party & Anniversary

On May 31, 2003, Chicago Force held its 4th Annual Line Party & Anniversary at Father & Sons Pizza. The turn-out was good, the food plentiful, and fun was had by all.

Besides the food, we played games, watched a wonderful video all about us that was filmed and put together by the wonderful Trisha, and had a raffle where everyone left with a prize.

If you missed it, well…your loss. You should really show up next time. (C’mon! You know you want to)

First Annual Line Reunion Party

There wasn’t a Big Mac in sight, but food, folks and fun ruled the day on Saturday, April 29, at the first annual Chicago Force Line Reunion gathering.

We knew we were in solid at Philosofur’s (2833 N. Sheffield, visit often) when we discovered that our bartender Matt was himself a Star Wars fanatic, and could often be spotted drooling over the pile of Star Wars toys we’d brought along to raffle off as prizes for the guests. He and the staff of the bar were hugely supportive and did a great job at keeping us liquidated with soda and beer. (Note to self: $3 Sam Adams are as close to a recipe for happiness as has yet been uncovered).

The crowd was a nice mix of old faces and new. Bob and Chris–#1 and #2 in the McClurg line, respectively–seemed to have survived the year since TPM unscathed. Should you visit the Field Museum, you might run into Bob–he’s currently employed there as a lighting designer. Chris plans to conquer the evil corporate monolith of Starbucks from the inside, one store at a time. Best of luck to him in Boston.

The Dueling Andys engaged an electrifying debate over whether TPM indeed ruled, or sucked. Chad and Amanda represented the Jedi Knights Scooter Club with flying colors, and Katherine represented the whole of Indiana, where we’ve heard there’s more than corn but we won’t believe it until we see it. Big Thom arrived unsure if we were really as insane as we seemed at Capricon–he discovered that yep, we are. All of the usual suspects were also in attendance–former Line Letter scribe Matt Springer, Heather Ast the Darth Jurist herself, Dave Gray (who is simply the MAN), Roman Segal (who is also a MAN) and new recruit Amy Nothelfer, who did stellar work in helping to organize the event and keeping the pizzas fresh and tasty. Even our Fearless Leader and her Even More Fearless Husband, Stephanie and Aaron McCullough, made it to the celebration after spending a long afternoon moving out of their apartment.

Once the party wrapped up at 8 p.m. a smaller crowd moved to the front of Philosofur’s for commiseration, Elvis Costello songs and more beer until around 1 a.m., when visits to Club Foot and Exit rounded out the evening. We closed both bars and the last Chicago Forcers staggered home at 5 a.m., totally partied out and ready to slip into their Jedi jammies for bed.

A BIG thanks to everyone who attended and made our Line Reunion gathering such a big success!

The Phantom Menace video release party

A great time was had by everyone who showed up to the Chicago Force Video Release Party hosted by James (FantmMes). There was an unholy feast of pizza and junk-food spread out for everyone. Long-standing donor (Joe) brought 4 cases of assorted chips. Big Tom provided a VAT of homemade chili-cheese dip. I took 8 pizza’s and a couple cases of ‘DEW.

The Party was almost postponed as, the night before in a terrible mishap, a telephone was accidentally dropped onto the 3rd Laser Disk in the set….cracking it and rendering it unplayable. But who needs to see the last 20 minutes of The Phantom Menace anyway…..right? Well, the person who accidentally broke the disk was immediately banished from the kingdom and told never to return. Next, our resourceful host went out early in the morning and found another (hard to find) copy of The Phantom Menace on Laser Disk. Disaster averted, party saved….The Force Was With Us.

By 4:30 everyone had shown up, we settled in front of James’ massive 64″ Super-Wide-Screen-High-Definition Television and watched the movie in Window-Shattering Earth-Pounding THX theater Surround Sound. Admittedly, a lot less actual watching was done and a whole lot of commentary and speculation was heard. It was virtualy “STAR WARS THEATER 2000”. Everyone on hand seemed to be a hard-core fan…and we all had some very interesting commentary and theories to share. I think every hidden-scene and “Easter-egg.” was revealed. I know I had about 20 missed things pointed out to me…from Ratts Tyerell being hauled away on a stretcher to Obi-Wan casually flipping his lightsaber (like the bad-ass he is) while approaching Darth Maul. I haven’t heard such involved dialogue on the movies since the conversations heard at the front of the line last May.

After the movie was over, we checked out James’ impressive Star Wars collection. I say “impressive” meaning that I haven’t seen a more impressive one since visiting the Star Wars exhibit at the Smithsonian Institute last year in DC.

Well, if this little get-together is any indication of how much fun our Reunion Party is going to be in 2 weeks…then we have a lot to look forward too. Sorry if you missed this one…but I’ll see you in two weeks.