@randal: you're a scamp, with your lust for Mary! It means you are alive and well! Made me laugh!

I'm still feeling well. Last night i attended a planning meeting for our building's Christmas event. It was billed as a "Christmas COCKTAIL PARTY" so i was really excited as i've never really been to a genuine cocktail party as an adult, just parties in my own home where i was a kid. I imagined waiters circulating with silver trays of champagne and hors d'oeuvres and us dressed to the nines! My mom used to make exquisite hors d'oeuvres, tiny quiche, cheese pastries, pigs-in-a-blanket, etc. She had a "no fail" recipe for pastry. Good pastry is hard to make. She would put out a whole spread, including warm ones on a giant electric warming plate. I read in a novel about this family that would have nothing but hors d'oeuvres for dinner one night a month and i thought that was a great idea!

I was looking so forward to our Christmas cocktail party!

But alas, in the course of the meeting everything got changed to a dumb old "Christmas CELEBRATION" with dumb old crackers + cheese, veggies + dip and finger sandwiches and nothing will be replenished once it's gone -- it's all "too bad, so sad." What kind of attitude is THAT for an affluent building like ours?! SO DISAPPOINTING!!! I've been to that type of 'celebration' many times before! We all have. It's what's usually served at public gatherings at Christmas and at office Christmas parties!

Last year i and the other women in the building put on an entire Christmas DINNER! It was truly a FEAST (and i don't use that word lightly) such as i've never been to before and my dish was a hit, people had some and came back for seconds, all 6.5 liters of it went! I was overjoyed! Several people DEMANDED the recipe! And i'm just a novice cook! There was turkey and ham and shrimp rings galore! No sooner was something finished than it was replaced by another platter! There was enough for all! It made me so proud of our building! We are a really special condo building, the best kept secret in the city and i was thrilled that we put on such a spread as you would never get anywhere else!

But there is a new organizer this year and she doesn't want to do anything but decorate. She delegated everything else to people that didn't even volunteer, she just twisted their arms in front of everyone until they were so uncomfortable they finally gave in. And she's a Board member! Such a poor showing from her. And such a mediocre plan. Really disappointed.

Today i made my own solution. I bought frozen hors d'oeuvres and will get a champagne flute and a diet Sprite and have my own cocktail party with my dog! I'll wear sequins and be the lady and get her a bow and she can be the gent! I'll talk scintillating conversation to her and she can bark!

Aces!

Love to all!