The 2008 AONE Holiday Party

By Dave Pratt; Photos by Tom Lesko and Dave

Despite over a foot of snow the day before,  and with continuing snowfall throughout the day of the event, an amazing 27 of the 28 people who had signed up for the AONE Holiday Party on December 20th showed up! Granted, there were some late arrivals, mostly due to the road conditions, but all-in-all it was a great turnout! Says something about how eager our members are to share in our club camaraderie! (Either that or how frugal we are to not waste a pre-paid dinner ticket.)

So people drifted in (literally) over a period of an hour or two. (One of the later arrivers, who shall go unnamed, had keyed my address into his Nav system rather than that of the restaurant. He noticed that something was awry when his Nav system delivered him to a dimly-lit house in the woods on a dead-end street. Fortunately, the restaurant was only a few miles away and he eventually made it after recalculating his route. The good news is that he was driving his truck and plowed my driveway while he was here.)

Vinny T’s had given us their ballroom for our gala, which was quite a bit larger than we needed but made for a nice, attractive, relaxed venue. Self-serve beer, wine, and soft drinks were set up along the side, and we helped ourselves to those while greeting each other, meeting old friends and making new ones, and in general making merry. After a while, Vinny brought out an Italian buffet, which consisted of a Caesar Salad, Penne Alla Vodka, Chicken Carciofi, and Veal Parmigiana. We all filled our plates, found table space, and proceeded to enjoy. This was followed later by Tiramisu and coffee.

After dinner, AONE President Tom Lesko made some (mercifully short) announcements and then launched into the eagerly-anticipated Yankee gift swap. This was again loads of fun, with a wide assortment of gaily-wrapped presents being opened one after the other, and then either being swapped for ones that had already been opened or stashed under the table in hopes that no one would spot them and steal them away. As always, there were a few items that particularly struck people’s fancies and got swapped around several times. These included a set of Giulia GT books, some limoncello (a perennial hit), and a furry hat adorned with the AONE logo intended for winter Spider driving.

The Yankee swap was followed by our annual holiday sing-along, which for some reason has become a favorite pastime. This year, everyone was mightily relieved when the cheesy piano player didn’t show up (must have been the weather), so he wasn’t there to drag the music down, and our crowd belted out rousing a cappella renditions of several tunes normally associated with Xmas, but with lyrics adjusted to appeal to our Alfa-centric sensibilities.

As you can tell from the accompanying photos, everyone was having a terrific time from beginning to end. But end it eventually did, and gradually we donned our winter garb and dispersed to scrape the new-fallen snow off our cars (no, no Alfas in the snowy parking lot) and head for home. Our thanks go out to Tom Lesko, who organized this event on a rather last-minute basis and saved us from breaking our club’s recently-formed holiday party tradition. And thanks to everyone who braved the elements to attend — you made it a memorable event!

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