|
|||
|
By Dave Pratt It was nearly another sell-out for the annual AONE Holiday Party we held at the Josiah Smith Tavern on Saturday, December 15th. (The occupancy of the Tavern is limited by regulations to 49 people.) We love having problems like that, and we fortunately didn't have to turn anyone away! Our gang started drifting in around 5 PM, donned name tags, and deposited our Yankee Swap gifts on a table that literally overflowed with them. AONE President and event organizer Tom Lesko had put together another great rotating slide show of about 100 pictures that was a "Year in Review" of our 2012 club events. Tom was also playing a "Jazz Holidays" selection of music, although we were so boisterous that we pretty much drowned it out.
Then the main course was announced at the buffet table, and it was a wonderful feast! It was the same caterer we had used the past few years (Tastings Caterers of Framingham), and Tom Lesko had worked with them again to give the menu a gourmet Italian flair. Despite (or because of?) the fact that Tastings had neglected to include our party on their schedule until a few days before, they really outdid themselves! We heard nothing but raves from all of our guests.
As you can see in the photos below,
everyone was having a terrific time from soup to nuts. But the
sing-along generally causes everyone to start heading (in some cases
bolting) for the door, and at around 9 PM the party broke up. Our thanks
again go out to
Tom Lesko, who did his usual great job organizing this event. And thanks to
all of you Alfisti who made it another memorable club event!
|
|||
|
(Click on the thumbnails below for a larger view, and then
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
We were also
treated to a table of tasty appetizers,
and then waitresses began circulating through the crowd with trays of
hors d'œuvre. We all tapped into the various forms of libation we'd
brought along and spent a pleasant time enjoying them and the appetizers,
while sharing various Alfa (and non-Alfa) tales among our friends,
new and old.
After dinner, Tom Lesko
wasted no time in launching into the eagerly-anticipated Yankee Swap.
After all, we had nearly 50 gifts to get through, all opened
sequentially! As at previous
holiday parties, this was
again loads of fun, with a wide assortment of brightly-wrapped presents
to open and then either swap for
one that had already been opened or stash away in
the futile hope that no one would snag it from you. As always,
there were a few items that particularly struck people’s fancies and
got swapped around several times. These included die-cast models of
classic Alfas and a certain poster of a red Giulietta Spider. The
Swap was a hoot right up to the last minute!
Then
came our dreaded — errr, cherished — annual holiday sing-along. With
nearly fifty sets of reluctant — errr, enthusiastic — 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. Check out the video at the
bottom of this page and you'll get the drift.
