OJOA Christmas Dinner Report

Sunday December 6th,2008

Once again, our third time, our Club’s Christmas Dinner was held at the Royal Canadian Military Institute (RCMI) in downtown Toronto. If want to know more about RCMI go to www.rcmi.org.

This year was healthy mix of familiar (not old!) and new faces of our Club.

This is a wonderful venue for this event as its Victorian charm and museum quality artifacts added a Dickensian quality to our merry feastings.

Twenty-one guests enjoyed cocktail hour followed by a traditional meal of prime rib of beef or salmon or chicken with wine and white glove service and all the fixings. It’s always hard to move the event forward to the dinner from cocktail hour (more like 2 hours) as guests find it hard to break away from the scintillating conversations about what else? Jaguar and Jaguars!

The 2008 Dinner will be remembered for the addition of a silent auction, caroling a knowledge quiz and the presentation of roses to the ladies present (an old club tradition that was resurrected) and reading of a poem for our Canadian troops to the usual mingling, door prizes, crackers and toasts. Prizes included wines and beers (with an automotive theme), gift baskets, licorice, hats, and many model Jaguars.

All of these new activities originated and were carried forward by the efforts of dedicated members: Steve Sherriff, Ross Hamilton, Mike Woodman and Victor Krisel.

Special thanks are extended to Steve Sherriff for acting as master of ceremonies and Victor Krisel for "volunteering" to act as Carol-master and our impromptu quiz host. Special thanks to the indefatigable Ross Hamilton and Mike Woodman for their volunteer efforts behind the scenes. The generosity of Ross Hamilton's donation for our silent auction lot (a presentation quality art piece) and Mike Woodman's contribution of rare 1/43rd scale model Jaguars were much appreciated by the winners thereof and all in attendance as well as your host.

As always, I look forward to the feedback of those who attended (as well as those who did not) for next year, the 50th Anniversary Christmas Dinner, make it great.

Dan Lokun, Your Host (2008)