2007 Holiday Party

by Joseph M. Humbert with Gwaltney Mountford and Helen Cheung

In December, instead of a speaker, the Chapter threw a Holiday Party in a private room at the Bighorn Grill in San Ramon, with gift exchanges, raffles, games, and door prizes. With all of that, it is no surprise that a good time was had by all.

All attendees brought a wrapped book to exchange. Some members donated some of the raffle prizes (an iPod Shuffle was a gift of the chapter) and door prizes, all of which contributed to the festivities.

The Bighorn Grill added to the holiday spirit with a Christmas tree (perfect for the wrapped books), and provided an excellent meal of sirloin steak, bricked chicken, or Pommorola Spinachi; mixed green salad; and a dessert of either a tiramisu or a vanilla bean gelato.

After dinner, our Mistress of Ceremonies, President Helen Cheung, welcomed the guests, wished them a Happy Holiday, and thanked them for coming. She then introduced the Hospitality Manager Gwaltney Mountford who led the group in three games, which produced much fun and laughter.

Tree with wrapped books

Judy telling her celebrity story

The first game was a 'Who Am I?' game. Each guest wrote on a piece of paper 4 or 5 little known facts about themselves. The papers were given to Gwaltney who read each one out loud to the group. The first person that correctly guessed the writer was given a small prize. Some of the little-known facts were quite fascinating---do you know who went around the world in 6 days or who slept at the Pentagon? A prize was given to the person who correctly identified the most people and to the one or two who stumped the group. Of course, as the game wore on, the number of available candidates dwindled.

The second game was 'Name That Celebrity.' It was assumed - and it turned out to be true - that each of us at one time in his or her life ran across or met a political or entertainment celebrity. Each person then gave clues about who that person was and the group had to guess the celebrity. Some of the stories were fascinating, as Judy Herr, living in Texas in the early 1960's, had an up and coming singer entertain in her home - Janis Joplin before she moved to San Francisco and became 'Janis.' Among the celebrities were three presidents, the wife of a foreign head of state, a couple of other political leaders (including our governor), a couple of writers, and, of course, quite a few singers and movie stars. Prizes were awarded to those who stumped the group.

The third game involved three teams, each required to name in turn a Christmas song that had the word "snow" in it and then sing the part of the song that contained the word. The team that came up with the most songs won a prize. It was an entertaining game as we all tried to remember all the Christmas songs with that word (not that many, as it turns out).

After the games, we ran the raffle. We mentioned the iPod, but other gifts that were raffled included a bottle of champagne, a gift card to Barnes and Noble, a gift basket of cookies from Hawaii, a gift certificate for a Breema workout, and a Bluetooth headset. We also raffled off the three poinsettias brought in for decoration. The big winner was Danett Weinshelbaum who won the iPod. We hope you are enjoying your tunes, Danett. But congratulations to all the winners. Actually, we all were winners as we all had a very enjoyable evening.

Finally, we all went to the Christmas tree and picked out a wrapped book. All seemed pleased with their selection.

If you didn't attend this year, you missed a great time; perhaps next year you might be able to if we do this again. Thank you to Helen Cheung, Gwaltney Mountford, and May McKoon for pulling this together. We also thank those who donated the raffle gifts (Helen, Joe, Gwaltney, Richard Mateosian and Elaine Pendergrast).