End of the year, end of Christmas season

Quite often Christmas day or maybe the day after, anyone around our house is recruited to start taking Christmas decorations down. Since we didn't really have anyone around our house, the decorations lasted until two days before New Year, when the pressure just got too much to bear.

I was able to help taking the tree apart and putting it to bed in its box. But it was a little much for the two of us to put the box back up on the shelf in the garage. Next year, we'll probably wait for a son or son-in-law to help.

Putting the small decorations such as the Christmas village away was a little more my style. But even here, Carolyn had to manage putting them onto the storage room shelves.

Taking down the Christmas decorations has always signaled the end of Christmas to me. Time to get on with the New Year.

A Very Merry Christmas - book review

To show that I don't just read science-related non-fiction books, the object of today's review is "A Very Merry Christmas" by Lori Foster, Gemma Bruce, and Janice Maynard. But I'll also admit that I picked it up only because I saw it while doing the "pick list" (requested books) at the library and the cover looked so cheery and topical. The book consists of three short stories, one by each of the authors, and each with roughly a Christmas or at least winterly theme. Also, each of the stories is complete in itself. Each story contains at least the minimum one steamy sex scene and a couple of erotic allusions. I found two of the stories fun to read while the one by Lori Foster, the "New York Times bestselling author", was the least interesting.

If you're interested in some light reading and aren't put off by a small amount of explicit descriptions of sex, you'd probably enjoy the book.

iGoogle

My wife Carolyn was looking over my shoulder this evening and asked what iGoogle was. I told her it was a customizable Internet portal or home page that had Google as it’s search engine. In addition to the Google search box, iGoogle suggests things you might want and then you can customize it if desired.. I have various things on my home page such as “How To of the day”, “This Day in History”, “Quotes of the Day”, etc. You can also add tabs for extra “home pages”. I have a whole second page with Toys such as “Sudoku of the day”, “Joke of the Day”, and “Pacman”. I rarely look at this tab but it’s there. If I sign onto another computer and log into Google, I can get the same iGoogle page as I do at home. Its sort of a way to have something familiar greet you on a strange computer.

Anyway, I explained to Carolyn what iGoogle was and that I could add another tab. I clicked on “Add a tab” and named it “Church things”. Darned if 2/3 of the items suggested by iGoogle for that page weren’t LDS related. Does Google know that’s the church I attend? Or is the LDS church the leader in developing items for Google’s iGoogle system? Seeing all the LDS items was sort of spooky, though.

If you haven't tried iGoogle yet, I recommend it. To get started go to the URL www.Google.com. Then just click on the word "iGoogle" in the upper right hand corner of your Google window. Have fun!

Pole-ution

As long as we've lived in this house, there has been a utility pole lying close to our property line fence but on the neighbor's side. At first we thought they had placed it there for a purpose but as the years went by it seemed obvious that there was no purpose. It was just trash left by the developer who built our house 15 years ago.

This morning Carolyn called our electric utility company (known as SMUD) and asked them to come and take the pole away. She must have used the right words because there were three SMUD trucks at our house within an hour with guys asking me where the problem was. They had heard there was a “pole down” which signals an emergency for them. Expecting a live transformer and power outage, etc., they were visibly disappointed to see what it really was.

What we have, according to SMUD, is a “customer owned pole” , probably a temporary power connection used by a contractor while erecting a house before the house is ready to wire up. One of the guys said it was even likely that an electrical contractor would pay us for the pole because it’s ready to use right now.

Shortly after I was told there was nothing SMUD could do about the pole, SMUD trucks 4, 5 and 6 pulled up and the occupants started discussing the situation with the three SMUD workers already on the job. Finally, someone decided it was something SMUD could do after all. At the height of the job there were 6 trucks, vans, etc. and at least 11 men on the job. Our neighbor Wayne, hearing all the trucks and conversation, even came over to see what was going on. Two men removed the foot-step rods, 1 man removed the junction box, 1 man removed the wire, and 1 man used a chain saw to cut the pole into five pieces. The other six were supervising.

After the pole had been cut into 5 sections, it was hauled away to the back of this truck. Once they actually started on the job it was done in less than 15 minutes. The only evidence the pole was ever there are four small piles of sawdust.

Getting a bit chilly

As our window thermometer in the family room shows, it's starting to get down around 32 degrees some mornings.

And here you can see that "the frost is on the pumpkin" so to speak.

I guess this would have been more appropriate last week for the winter solstice. Carolyn is especially glad that she has a carport for her red rocket and doesn't have to scrape off the windshield every morning.

Kaiser pharmacy

I think I've mentioned many good things about the Kaiser Health Care system in this blog but I don't recall talking about the excellent pharmacy system within Kaiser. Not only are their individual pharmacies efficient and careful, but the system is geared to keeping the patient in mind at all times. Carolyn and I order all our refill prescriptions on the Internet and have the drugs shipped by mail so we seldom deal directly with the pharmacies except for initial prescriptions.

An example of the speed and efficiency of the system is that tonight Carolyn emailed her primary care physician about the need to renew her primary medicine for her myasthenia. No more than 30 minutes later she received a message in return telling her he had renewed her prescription and she needed only to pick it up at any pharmacy in the system.

Recently my neurology specialist prescribed a new medication for my Parkinson's Disease. He spent probably 10 minutes telling me the possible side effects with this medication as well as the hoped for good effects. He feels that the good effects far outweigh whatever side effect that will occur, and he doesn't really think any will occur. He then entered my prescription into his computer terminal. He warned me that the pharmacy may not have the medication in stock so I should give them a couple of days.

When we got home I called the central refill pharmacy which the doctor had selected and after punching a few numbers was told by a recording that they were out of stock. A couple days later, I got the message that the prescription was ready and waiting for me.

Usually, when I pick up a new prescription, they want me to "consult" with a pharmacist. I usually waive the consult because the pharmacist simply reads to me the warnings on the pill bottle and accompanying brochures. But this time there was no waiving of the consult. The pharmacy tech ringing up the purchase said, "The pharmacist wants to talk to you about this medication." No questions asked.

The pharmacist did have a lot to say to me, basically the same thing my doctor had said. In fact, she claimed to have discussed the prescription with the doctor and she did seem very knowledgeable about my condition and medications.

I now have two medications that cost over $600 for 100 days or $6 per day. If it weren't for Kaiser, I'd be paying $5,000 a year just for those two pills. Makes a person glad for insurance. And the speed and convenience makes a person glad for Kaiser.

Santa and Christmas show up after all

In spite of all the trouble and strife in the world, in spite of the hatred and fighting, Christmas came after all and in many homes there were shrieks of laughter and delight.










Our home was really rather quiet as we enjoyed a peaceful Christmas morning knowing that our children and grandchildren were all waking up to peace, health, and general well being. We are so thankful for that. There weren't a lot of surprises around our tree since we have finally found the key to getting each other the presents that most please is to shop together for those presents. And the main presents we got each other were iPod MP3 players. I must admit that I surprised Carolyn a little. I found a couple of inexpensive iPod accessories (docking speakers and armband case) that I wanted her to try out before I got them for myself. And she surprised me with a full set of DVDs for the Seinfeld series, all 32 disks.

I heard a man recently say that optimists feel the future will be gentler and kinder to the less fortunate while pessimists feel the future will be much like the present but with lots more electronic devices. We certainly saw that with our iPods as well as a digital photo frame, a digital photo keychain, and an LED "super light". But we also enjoyed an old fashioned set of Corelle dishes, perpetual calendar, and some unique and beautiful jewelry for Carolyn.










Later we dropped in on Ed and Tiffany to share the joy and excitement of Tim and Jake and then going to a Chinese buffet restaurant which has become traditional for us. We're indeed grateful for so many blessings in this world as well as strength to help us cope with the less pleasant things that life throws our way.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Christmas Eve dreidels

I suppose it is somewhat appropriate in these times of multicultural relationships that we spend an evening with friends who are Jewish and are happy to share some of their customs with us even as we share Christmas Eve customs with them.

What we thought was an afternoon get together turned into a dinner party with games of all sorts and presents for the winners. Our first game of the evening involved the dreidel, a four-sided wooden or plastic top, and a whole lot of Hanukkah "geld" or foil covered chocolate in the form of money. It is a common children's game played during the Jewish festival of Hanukkah but we had at least as much fun as kids would when a couple of the players began thinking up side "bets" to make the game a little more interesting.

We then enjoyed a delicious meal consisting of Jewish and Spanish-American dishes. And that was followed by more games, this time of the intellectual kind such as going around the circle of participants naming a city that starts with A until someone can't think of one.

A little different from some of our Christmas Eve's but fun nevertheless.

Candlelight Services

One little candle doesn't produce much light but when you fill a whole church sanctuary with hundreds of lit candles the effect is astounding. This afternoon, acting in response to a dear friend's invitation, we attended the Candlelight Services of the Spiritual Life Center, a Unity ministry here in Sacramento. Naturally, the services were geared to the Christmas theme so there were some beautiful musical numbers from their choir and visiting musicians as well. And the congregation was invited to sing several carols as well.

The climax of the service was when they darkened the sanctuary and, beginning with one candle which represented the life of Christ, lit the ushers' candles, then one person on each row and then passing the flame from candle to candle down each row until the hall just glistened with the light of hundreds of flames. Allusions can be made to the light of Christ, the love of Christ, or simply the spirit of each person there.

Our friend Shannah McAleer conducted the service. We hung around to say our congratulations and compliments on a job well done and a service that was spiritually uplifting. We found out after several hugs that Shannah's two aunts were in town. So we all drove to Lyon's to eat and get to know the aunts a little better. It's always fun to hang around with Shannah and Kathy and their family.

Another Old Town Adventure

Carolyn and I barely finished handing out all the cookies and candies to friends and neighbors this morning when we met at the church to go on another "Sacramento Adventures" adventure. This time the destination was the Old Schoolhouse in Old Town Sacramento where a good friend Sarah Lynne Klapheck is a docent. She seemed really pleased to see that we made it as planned.

On exhibit were dozens of gingerbread houses.

Many of them were absolutely gorgeous, even spectacular.

And all of them showed considerable effort.


While we were there Father Christmas made an appearance, somewhat scaring our two grandsons who weren't expecting such a thing and hadn't prepared themselves for the event. He also didn't look like they expect Santa to look.

After thoroughly enjoying the gingerbread house display, we took to the streets of Old Town for some last minute shopping and window shopping until we got cold enough and hungry enough to call it a day.

When in doubt, shut them out

The same people who run the restroom facilities in parks and on beaches must be working a second shift with the U.S. Postal Service. Like everyone else whose house was built after 1978 when the Postal Service declared that every new development must have curbside delivery or mailboxes at a central location, we don't get door to door mail delivery. We have to walk half a block to where the postal service has erected a stand-alone cluster of mailboxes and package lockers. Up until very recently we could also deposit our outgoing mail at the same place, knowing that it would get picked up and go out as early as if we had taken it to the post office.

A few days ago, as I reached to deposit a couple of envelopes, this is what I saw. The postal worker had closed off the mail slot! There was no note in our boxes explaining the new arrangement, no sign on the mailbox cluster. We were left to speculate what caused the closure. Like I said, it is like the people who erect restrooms in public places for the convenience of the public then close them down because of some maintenance or abuse problems.

I'm speculating that a neighbor who several months ago lost some outgoing mail (some Netflix DVDs he was returning) complained again so they made sure his outgoing mail wouldn't be stolen from this location again. Problem solved.

Update: A neighbor who is much smarter than I, left a note on the back of the mailbox cluster (the side the postman sees) asking what was up. He received a personal visit from the postman explaining that there had been another alleged theft of outgoing mail so they had indeed blocked that slot. However, the postman suggested that if we had outgoing mail, we simply put it in our own mailboxes and push it as far to the back as possible with the uncanceled stamp closest to the back of the box. This way the postman can see it when he or she opened the back of the cluster and can collect it like he/she used to. Now, why didn't the postman leave a message to that effect for us all.

Update 2: Okay, someone must have nixed that solution so we are once again back to the original configuration with an open slot available for deposited mail. But do I dare use it? Whoever was tampering with the mail may tamper with mine. And the postman may be used to ignoring that slot so he may not pick up my mail. Interesting dilemma.

Christmas is for kids

No doubt about it. In my mind Christmas is for kids. Since we're not planning on going anywhere for Christmas this year, and since Carolyn has been diligent about getting all the long distance gifts taken care of by now, we're sort of in the "lay back and enjoy it" phase. So we've been able to play with our grandsons (grandpa being soundly whupped at Monopoly Junior here), take them with me for Meals on Wheels, and spend an evening doing that old fashioned activity - stringing popcorn to be used as trimming on the Christmas tree.

Here is Jake and Carolyn tying a couple of strings together and sizing up the string so far. Tim did a great job at using a needle and thread while Grandpa seemed to be able to poke himself rather well.

Here is the tree decorated with the popcorn garland. We thought about doing more but it was already pretty late. So we sent the kids off to take their baths.

Christmas Letter - 2007

It's that time of year again when Carolyn promises to send out the Christmas letter if I'll write it. And I sit down at the computer wondering what will come from my fingers this time. Will it be philosophical like the 2005 letter or tongue-in-cheek like the 2006 letter? Do I keep it to the really important, life changing events of the past year guaranteeing that it will be no more than one paragraph? Or do I include every incident that we thought at the time was interesting which will probably result in a small book? Then there's the kids and grandkids. We'd really like to brag about all of them because they're so easy to brag about and, besides, everyone else brags about their family in their letter. But, on the other hand, shouldn't the kids be doing their own Christmas letter with their own bragging?

After much thought and consideration and several rewritings we finally have the Christmas letter for 2007. If this doesn't automatically load, give us a call or an email and we'll make sure you get one in the mail. Or we'll keep you on the line long enough to tell you everything that's in it.

The most important part is the message at the end wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Another (welcome) baby boy!

I know. I know. Having amniocentesis and ultrasound imaging for a fetus is so old hat that patients just assume they will get them. But to an old timer like me, it is all still pretty much a miracle.

(click on the picture to see a larger image.) This picture of Ed and Tiffany's 3rd baby is brought to you courtesy of Kaiser Medical System and the parents, of course. I won't pretend to know what I'm seeing in this image but we are told by the professionals that this is indeed a baby boy that Tiffany is expecting in late spring. He appears healthy and growing well. It also looks like he has all the important parts.

Stay tuned as we watch the progress of Baby #3 (name to be decided later). And congratulations Tiffany and Ed.

World Clock

My brother Bernell forwarded me the URL of a World Clock that is really interesting. Although it appears to indicate the actual world population, deaths, births, etc. it really uses the established rates for each of the listed demographics and multiplies those rates by the time elapsed.

I am amazed at how many indicators are tracked by this clock. In addition to population counts, there are numbers indicating new cars, new bicycles, even the number of species that have gone extinct within the chosen time period. You can select the year to date, month to day, week to date, current day, and even from the time you press the NOW button.

I haven't tracked them all down, but the World Clock site seems to have lots of other interesting things to offer as well. Could be fun to check out.

A two-fer one party

Several weeks ago Carolyn decided that since we'd have the house all decorated and cleaned up for the choir party (we even got a bonus carpet cleaning by Tiffany) that we should take the opportunity to host an open house for a couple in our ward who just got married. It was the second marriage for both of them as she was a widow and he a divorcee. But they make the cutest couple now. Just like twenty-something newlyweds.

Congratulations Sharon and Lee. May the rest of your married days be as happy as this afternoon's event.

Christmas Parties

There's a qualitative difference between parties you attend and parties you put on and invite others to. We've had a couple of the first but tonight was the first of the second kind for the season. It was the traditional choir party, a tradition we borrowed from the Long Beach 3rd ward. Tonight was our second annual-OOPS Carolyn reminds me it is the FOURTH annual choir party in the La Sierra Ward. We were a little concerned when only 7 people signed up for food assignments but we ended up with 18 people attending (including the two of us). And some people brought more than one dish so there was plenty to eat.

All but two people brought gifts for the gift exchange and Carolyn had already planned for that by wrapping a couple of extra gifts. I think the description of the gifts was "useful white elephants". I got a couple of ceramic statues good for collecting dust. Carolyn ended up with a wired smoke detector which might actually turn out to be useful for us.

We followed the usual drill (we've done it twice now, it must be USUAL) of eating the pot-luck meal, having the gift exchange with good-natured gift stealing as well, then singing carols around the piano. I wasn't sure I could still play for the singing but I managed to make it through pretty well.

Final by lottery

Carolyn and I had our final exam for the Conversational Spanish class we just completed. Like other things our instructor has done this semester, the final was not like any other I have ever taken. It was an oral exam which is probably appropriate for a class that purports to be "conversational". In fact, if there wasn't some sort of measurement for how we can now converse in Spanish, I might be tempted to say there was something missing in the class.

But what I found unusual was the way the orals were given. Our instructor prepared 9 scenarios or dialogs between two people with fairly clear directions about which way each dialog should go. Our task was to be ready to carry out one side of whichever dialog we happened to "draw". And it really was the luck of the draw as some of the dialogs were more difficult than others.

It appeared that most classmates did as we did by mocking up an actual dialog which followed the scenario and then trying to memorize all nine dialogs. In the end, Carolyn persuaded the teacher to let us draw our two scenarios several minutes before we actually took the test so that we had time to review our notes, and then Carolyn kept her notes in front of her during the test. The teacher didn't mark her down or complain so I guess it was okay. I'm not going to complain. It was a more positive experience and I did better with her having the notes as well.

It was sad to say good-bye to the teacher and several of the classmates tonight. But that happens with every class that has so much interaction. I'll be interested to see if my German class develops the same camaraderie.

Ban the book, burn the film...

As expected those who think that neither we nor our children have any brains or ability to distinguish fact from fiction, good from bad, are shouting from the rooftops. Their cry is simple:

Yesterday, I was handed a children's book by a staff member who said, "I think you need to see this."

The book is published by Scholastic and is part of a collection of books. The book I was given is called The Golden Compass. This children's book is one of the most alarming things I have ever read. What makes it worse is that a movie based on the book premieres in December. Both the book and the movie introduce atheism to children. The story ends with Adam and Eve killing God.

THIS IS A MOVIE THAT WE MUST PROTEST AND OPPOSE AS CHRISTIANS. Please educate yourself on this by checking out the links I have provided below and help me spread the word. Do not remain silent on this issue. This is a time for the family of GOD to stand together.

Dr. Bryan Cutshall
Senior Pastor, Twin Rivers Worship Center
Founder and CEO, Churchtrainer, Inc.

Unfortunately, the good pastor IF he has read the book, is not familiar with the genre and certainly has NOT seen the movie. I sincerely doubt that readers of this book will be "introduced to atheism" as he states. His notice would serve to do that. Nor does he seem to notice that the conflict posed in The Golden Compass is against a church similar to the Catholic church but one which has not been affected by the protestant reformation. Would he like such an organization to exist today? If he HAD read the book or seen the movie I think he just might root for the heroine Lyra and maybe that is what he fears. On the other hand, if his church is all-powerful and his god is not, then he might actually understand the plot of the book/movie and have a real reason to oppose it.

The Catholic League HAS read the books and presents a very well written synopsis of the three books in the series and comments rather acidly on the author and his motives. Since the Catholic Church is the figurative target of these dastardly books, they at least have something to complain about.

Six month check-up

Carolyn and I visited my neurologist this afternoon to discuss my six month progress with the Parkinson's medication I started 6 months ago. I have good and bad days (or as they say in Parkinson's world On and Off days) but certainly more good days than bad as long as I don't try to walk a great distance or run at all. However, I still often feel like I'm wearing lead shoes so he wants me to try another medication that is still so new Kaiser only added it to their allowable medications a year ago.

The doctor says that although tremor is probably the symptom most associated with Parkinson's, it is the least bothersome as it generally affects the hands only at rest. When you're doing something like keyboarding the tremor disappears. And he said that since I haven't had a tremor yet, it's not likely that I will in any case.

Other symptoms I have are excess saliva (I just have to be careful not to drool) and leaning to the left (physically, rather than in a political sense) for which I just have to keep reminding myself to sit or stand up straight. And some of the medication I take makes me sleepy enough to fall asleep at stop signs if I don't pay attention.

We're grateful that life is still good for both of us and that we are still able to do most of the things we'd like.

Focus Group

When we lived in Long Beach, I was a frequent participant in focus group studies, usually with a firm that operated over in Marina Del Rey but also one that had offices up near the LA Airport. We talked about everything from advertising designs to how important various auto components are. I'd kind of forgotten my participation until the topic came up in our critical thinking class last semester. Our instructor advised us all to submit our names to the main local focus group company Eliot Benson. I submitted my name and Carolyn's as well but we hadn't heard anything for six months. Thus, it seemed like a call out of the blue when our caller ID showed Eliot Benson. "Do we know an Eliot Benson," Carolyn asked me.

I didn't qualify for that study. A few days later Carolyn was called but didn't qualify. Then I got a call last week where I did qualify but the caller called back moments later to say their quota had been filled while she was interviewing me. She'd have to put me on a stand-by list.

I thought that was the end of that until I got another call yesterday asking if I was still available. Apparently some had dropped out or become disqualified. I was still available so I agreed to come in today at noon. It actually worked out perfectly with my library volunteer assignment.

Ten of us were selected to go into a conference room where a moderator led us through a discussion that was obviously scripted but not so obvious that we couldn't express all our views. We got off to a roaring start during the introductions when one guy said he worked for a non-government environmental protection agency and another guy said he was a rancher and was sick and tired of environmental protection people telling him what he could and couldn't do. We were afraid it was going to come to blows.

The discussion started with the participants ranking the governor, legislature, mayor, Public Utilities Commission (PUC), and Attorney General as to how they're doing their job. The PUC should have been the clue as to what the real topic would be. But, Jane was a good facilitator and led us gently to the topic by next asking what we thought "telecommunications" meant and what we thought of the providers we use. That provoked a lot of discussion as you might imagine. But unlike a normal barroom discussion, we had to be prepared to defend our ranking with arguments and whatever facts we could convince the group to accept. For example, one guy couldn't accept the designation of Vonage as a "phone company" because it didn't own any wires or cables. However, he agreed that t-Mobile is a "phone company" even though it doesn't own any cables.

The final discussion centered around how we would feel about changes in the telecommunications regulations which would try to keep government out of the picture except to protect consumers interests. They would also try to level the playing field by eliminating the regulation of some sector's rates while not regulating others'. My guess it was sponsored by the old phone companies because the only immediate change they were proposing was eliminating price controls on land-based local phone rates.

After a two-hour discussion, we were all talked out. We walked back to the reception desk for my favorite part of the focus group experience - getting paid. Unfortunately, these guys apparently don't deal in cash and someone fouled up getting the checks. So we were told "the check's in the mail". I really did prefer the company in LA which paid in cash, new bills in sealed envelopes. It kind of gave an Agent 007 feel to the whole thing. Checks are boring, not to mention traceable.

Speechless?

Am I the only one who finds this ad ironic? The last thing I need from a phone is to be left speechless. This image appeared in my email today as official spam from Apple.com

Ward Christmas Party

Putting on a ward party is no small feat. It requires lots of person-hours, lots of donations, and lots of purchases. I know I couldn't have pulled something like this off without hiring a caterer. But Carolyn has the skills and network knowledge to make it look almost easy. I'm going to go through the process including pictures when I have them.

The planning process
Yesterday's blog pretty much spoke to this phase. We had several meetings before the party to do such things as plan the menu, select Santa candidates, assign purchase and cooking responsibilities, etc. No matter how many things we came up with, it seemed there were always more decisions to be made and responsibilities to share. If Carolyn were a control freak she would have kept them all to herself or delegated out but with a very short string. She didn't do that. She isn't a control freak.

Publicity
Carolyn did most of the publicity with cute fliers and announcements in Sunday bulletins, etc. Justin surprised us by getting out a mailing the day after we had discussed it in the Activities Committee. He requested an RSVP by phone call or e-mail but most of the people still RSVP'd by signing up to bring rolls or pies. Of course that's not a bad way to track volunteers.

Purchase and procurement
Justin works in a situation where they make big purchases of food such as large roasts or 200 pre-baked potatoes. So he volunteered to help with the meat and potatoes part of the menu while Carolyn opted to take care of the salad and vegetable. Sign-up sheets went around in Relief Society and Priesthood groups where ward members coming to the party were asked to bring either rolls and butter or a pie or two.

That took care of the menu and procurement assignment. It is also a leap of faith that enough people will follow through so that there really is a party. The meat and potatoes was a key one and, having never worked with him, we weren't sure Dustin was as good as his word. He is. Carolyn and I made a couple of Costco and Sam's Club runs to pick up what we could there and then hit the grocery store a couple of times to get the rest.

Set-up
Carolyn and the committee had in mind that we would have 24 hours to get the building and hall set-up and decorated - until we found out that a family had reserved all the same area for a family birthday celebration. That squoze everything into a four-hour time schedule from the time the family celebration was through to when we started serving food.


We wanted at least one foyer to look Christmasy when people arrived so Carolyn and I decorated this tree the afternoon of the party.

Table Set-up
According to the people who were signing lists or calling or emailing, the cultural hall had to be set up with as many tables as it would hold. It would be somewhere between 200 and 250 people. The end count seemed like it was just over 200 in attendance.



Things started looking much better when the tablecoths were placed on the tables.

And it looked even better when the centerpieces were put on the tables. This was another thing that Carolyn had arranged through sign-up lists and a little arm-twisting.

With so many projected attendees, we used both rectangular and circular table clothes.

Having the salad and rolls already on the table took some of the pressure off from everyone having to rush to the food table.

As it was, with servers in charge of handing out the potatoes and glazed carrots, and having two serving line, meant that the whole group was fed in the shortest amount of time I had ever seen on a ward banquet. We die the right thing there.


Good attendance

We estimated the final attendance at close to 200 counting the number of dinner plates used. But there was never a line waiting to be served.


Food preparation

Carrot glaze

Salad dressing
Carolyn and I aren't used to large group cooking although we've done some at Baldwin Family Camp. She simply took smaller recipes like for six people and multiplied by 16.66 to get the recipe for 100. Here she's literally whipping up enough Caesar salad dressing for 200 people.




Meat in fridge
The meat (prime rib) came in cases of two 11 to 14 pound blocks of pre-cooked, frozen meat. We thawed them out in the refrigerator - actually several refrigerators as we purchased 4 cases, 8 blocks of meat. I thought it was fascinating that restaurants get meat like this fully cooked and then just finish them up. These were cooked rare so all a restaurant would have to do is warm them up to say 145 degrees and they'd be ready to serve me. At 165 degrees they'd be well done.



Meat on counter
Another view of the meat.


Portable Roasters
Some of the meat was cooked in aluminum pans in regular ovens but we also tried the portable roasters. We had three at our house - one of ours and two borrowed. One block of meat pretty much filled a roaster. They worked perfectly to get the rare prime rib hot and medium rare with well and medium well end pieces.



Salads
The lettuce was cut and divided up for each table. We put the dressing in a separate bowl but in retrospect think it might have been better pre-tossed.



Food Serving

Bishop carving meat
To add a little "sizzle" to the meal, we had the bishop and another member of the ward carve the prime rib and place it on the plates after people had picked up their glazed carrots and twice-baked potato. It turned out to be a bit of a bottle neck but it was impressive.


John Vranich carving meat

Entertainment
For Entertainment, we watched a play that Marilyn Loveridge had worked hard to produce. It was called The Rented Christmas, was well done and well received. And it included a lot of young people in the ward.

And, lastly, following some Christmas carols, we had the traditional visit from Santa. He welcomed each child there to confide in him what they wanted for Christmas and then he gave them a candy cane in flavors such as blueberry and cinnamon.



We thought it was a wonderful party but mostly we're glad that the Activities Committee won't be called on for another party until New Year's Day which is a whole 3 weeks from now. Yikes!