Marine Lieutenant Dustin Smiley was deployed overseas last fall. So every week his wife invites someone to fill his space at the dinner table.
The creator of an R2D2 replica heard about it, and found out the family is a bunch of huge "Star Wars" fans. Not only did he bring the robot to dinner, he got a video message from Lt. Smiley, turned it into a hologram and had it projected through R2D2.
"When it was all sort of still shaping into dad, I was like 'Wait -- what is going on?'" said Ford Smiley, Dustin's son. "And then I realized, 'Oh my gosh, it's dad.'"
Mrs. Smiley says it was a huge hit. The only problem? How to top that for next week's dinner guest.