Meeting Report 12/21/24
December 21,2024 – This morning’s “First Annual Wit & Wisdom Holiday Party” was both well attended and much enjoyed. Everyone brought in something delicious to add to the potluck lunch and an anonymous wrapped gift for the “Secret Santa” exchange. Not only those things, but also a room full of the happy smiles of people who were enjoying themselves. We were many familiar friends, joined by two new guests: Kim Watson and Madhukar Shahi.
Our activities included sharing memories of favourite holiday seasons from years past. Some people reached back to events from long ago in their memories, while others cited warm thoughts about more recent times. This was followed by a trivia challenge that was researched by myself and presented by Mario. The attendees worked in pairs to guess the answers to 20 holiday-themed questions. There might have been a muttered grumble about the difficulty of the questions — don’t blame me, blame ChatGPT — but most teams did okay. The winners were Kris and Kringle (aka Rowan and Samir), who scored an impressive 19 out of 20 points. Second place went to another pair who also did very well (16/20), Al and Kim. The winners came away with victory garlands and boxes of chocolates. (For those who may be interested, here’s the link to a document with the questions and answers. Each answer includes a link to where you can find out more about the topic.)
The gift exchange featured a mixture of unwrapping and opening a wide variety of gift objects — but it also bred some outright larceny. A pickleball paddle — or was it a fancy cutting board? — passed between several pairs of hands. A nice bottle of Chianti left behind a sad temporary owner in Al Brown, though Rubi did manage to hide her bottle of wine away from possible predators. A jar of honey toured the room as well. After this activity, Rubi sparked a flurry of interest by holding a raffle draw. The lucky winners emerged clutching tickets for tonight’s lottery draw — a bit of luck for them that may soon lead to much bigger luck — a prize of millions!
The party concluded by sharing our warmest memories from the past year, and it was evident that 2024 had some real highlights for many of us. I shared my memory of getting the idea of bringing former ASotHer’s together when I first heard of the impending end of the road for the advanced club. Mario shared about his recent experience in Hawaii, where he witnessed the start of Maui’s great rebuilding after their devastating fire of a year ago. Aamir shared about the momentous year he and Shumaila had had, making their big move from Montreal to Toronto. We learned that Aamir will soon be opening a clinic called “Gameday Men’s Health,” targeted toward men who want to improve their health and their lives. His clinic sounds like a great idea; click on this link in order to learn more about it.
My thanks go to the ladies who helped me organize the party: Rubi, Ilana, and Sarah. A reminder that our next meeting will be on Saturday, January 18th at the Langstaff Community Centre. We’ll have another full agenda.
