|
|||
|
The 2010 AONE Holiday Party By Dave Pratt; Photos by Daves Pratt and Durnan It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents. But inside the Josiah Smith Tavern on Sunday, December 12th, all was sunny, bright, and cheerful! We had a sell-out crowd for our AONE Holiday Party this year (aided, no doubt, by the fact that the club Directors elected to subsidize over half of the cost from our treasury, and we Alfisti are nothing if not frugal!). It was a sell-out because the occupancy of the Tavern is limited by regulations to 49 people. We'd never had that problem before — it's a good problem to have!
We were also soon greeted by a table of delectable appetizers, followed by waitresses wafting through the crowd with trays of hors d'œuvre. We cracked open the various forms of libation we'd brought along and spent a nice time enjoying them, the appetizers, and each other's company. Then we were summoned to the buffet table for the main course, and what a feast it was! It was the same caterer we had used last year (Tastings Caterers of Framingham), but Tom Lesko had worked with them to give the menu a little more gourmet Italian flair, and they really outdid themselves! We heard nothing but raves from all of our guests. The menu is included at the bottom of this report, so you can review it if you were at the party, and to whet your appetite for next year if you weren't!
As you can see in the photos below,
everyone was having a terrific time from start to finish. But it did eventually
finish, and gradually we put on our rain gear and
headed back out into the dark and stormy night. Our thanks go out to
Tom Lesko, who did such a great job organizing this event. And thanks to
all of the Alfisti who braved the dark and stormy night
— you made it another memorable event!
|
|||
|
(Click on the thumbnails below for a larger view, and then
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
Club
members and significant others started drifting in and then arrived
en masse. We donned name tags and deposited our Yankee Swap
gifts on a heaping table. We were greeted by a rotating slide show
of about 100 pictures that AONE President and event organizer Tom
Lesko had put together — a "Year in Review" of our 2010
club events. Tom was also playing a "Jazz Holidays" selection of
music, but we soon became so raucous that we drowned it out.
After dinner, Tom Lesko made some
brief announcements, introduced the club Directors who were present, and then
launched into the eagerly-awaited Yankee gift swap. As at previous
holiday parties, this was
again loads of fun, with a wide assortment of brightly-wrapped presents
being opened one after the other, and then either being swapped for
ones that had already been opened or stashed under the table in
hopes that no one would spot them and steal them away. As always,
there were a few items that particularly struck people’s fancies and
got swapped around several times. These included a tool bag filled
with Italian beer, some limoncello (a perennial favorite), a diecast
model of an 8C Competizione, and a Santa Claus hat with
complementary flannel jammies. 
Then
came the moment everyone was waiting for (???) — our annual holiday sing-along, which for some reason has become a
favorite pastime. This year, with nearly 50 hearty sets of vocal chords, our crowd
really belted out some
rousing a cappella renditions of several tunes normally
associated with Xmas, but with lyrics somewhat modified to appeal to
(or offend) our Alfa sensibilities.
