Saturday, December 3, 2016
Barbara Parrish
“Should we continue with the annual Christmas Dinner?” A recent survey sent to the community received a unanimous response of YES to the question. But no one stepped forward to organize the 2016 dinner! HPCC Vice President, Sharon Aleckson, could not let it drop, so she decided to chair the event herself. Now who would do the cooking? She finally realized that “the cook” lived in her home! So Arlen Aleckson took on the challenge of planning and cooking a meal for all of us.
I won’t list the names of the many others who devoted time to making the dinner happen, because I’m afraid of leaving some hard worker off the list; but every one of them deserves a big THANK YOU! Although the dinner itself lasts no more than four hours, here’s an idea of all it takes to pull off this very special event:
- Two months of planning.
- Many, many phone calls to find co-chairs for each area, find volunteers for each committee, find kitchen help, arrange for emcee, arrange for Santa and Santa’s helper (and for repair of Santa’s suit), invite singers, arrange for dinner and dessert servers, find donations for dessert auction, have the hall and restrooms cleaned. . .
- Create invitation, send invitation via email, mail invitations to those with no computer, send reminder to invitees, keep track of 138 RSVP’s. . .
- Plan food, shop for food, cook food, including 50 pounds of potatoes which had to be peeled/chopped/cooked/mashed, bake special dinner rolls, cater salad and desserts, make punch and coffee. . .
- Make and donate desserts for auction, assemble and donate raffle baskets (complete turkey dinner, complete ham dinner, two coffee baskets), gather pictures of other community events, create overhead slide show, donate children’s gift bags, decorate fire truck. . .
- Bring all decorations from storage container, gather greens for decorating, decorate main area, set up and decorate Christmas tree, decorate Santa’s corner, create centerpiece for each table, shop for linens and special napkins, make and install signage, decorate outside, install outside lighting and inflatable “jazz band”. . .
- Set up tables and chairs, decorate tables, set places at tables, set up separate tables for raffles and dessert auction, pick up borrowed chairs from various locations, set up food line, set up dessert and drinks table, sweep floor, many willing hands for whatever last-minute tasks need doing. . .
- Direct the parking, act as emcee and auctioneer, prepare and give blessing, serve meals, serve desserts, deliver to-go meals, clear used plates, deliver Santa on fire truck, Santa spend time with children. . .
- Remove remaining dishes from tables, serve on kitchen clean-up crew and dishwashing team, clear everything else off tables, stack tables and chairs in closets, take down decorations, return bins of decorations to the container outside, reorganize the storage areas, haul off garbage, sweep and mop floors, launder and return tablecloths. . .
- Gather money from donation/auction/raffle locations, count money, take money to bank to deposit, gather receipts for expenditures, pay each receipt. . .
WOW!! All this and more to bring you a Christmas Dinner to remember!
THANK-YOU’s are due to everyone who pitched in to help, but also to each of you who came to enjoy the evening. It’s a special time to visit with those neighbors you haven’t seen in a while and to set the tone for a great holiday season. WHAT A WONDERFUL COMMUNITY WE ARE BLESSED TO LIVE IN! Have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!