Dec 21, 2021 Christmas theme: Are the holidays only about food and wine?

Are the holidays only about food and wine?  You might think so. Our glasses were charged as we toasted Toastmasters within our club, our guests Toastmasters Jessica M, Karen T, and D99 Program Director Richard M, who dropped in, and Toastmasters everywhere. Sgt at Arms Cherry C got us started by introducing Toastmaster Edith B, who in turn asked everyone to tell us about their favourite food/wine pairing.  Some “commemorated” people, places or events. 

We were treated to two speakers: 

1) Shiao X working on Dynamic Leadership L4 Elective - Manage Projects Successfully Part 1 - planning the project and Part 2 - executing the plan regarding “Create a kitchen garden.” It was certainly a family affair. According to Speech Evaluator Jessica, the speeches and her produce were well done, but wished we knew what dishes Shiao would make with her produce.  2) Eileen S gave her ice breaker speech under Visionary Communication “So this is Christmas!”  Eileen doesn’t seem to be phased by the Covid limitation of this Christmas again. I suspect it is because she is a grandmother, as is her speech evaluator Karen and this blog writer. We liked the “visionary” of seeing the toys she was giving to her grandkids. I guess it really is true “Who needs Santa when there is grandma.” 

Rhys D was Tabletopics Master asking some challenging questions related to Christmas, for the most part. Tabletopics Evaluator Craig B noted all the important parts were there in the responses. Cherry C won best Tabletopics  when she told us about her pursuit of finding a Christmas Eve church service in Hong Kong. 

Grammarian/Ah counter Cherry was not as busy with her grammarian role as she was with her Ah counter role or as Timer Dan Mc was. His red light was blinking as much as Rudolph’s red nose. 

We all wish everyone a very, merry holiday, regardless of how you celebrate it, and all the best in the New Year. We look forward to what Toastmasters has in store for us in 2022.  What Will it be? Perhaps leading a workshop in February on Judges Training. See you back on Zoom on January 4/22. 

Happy New Year from us to you, as our picture shows “Cheers.” 

Submitted by Edith Baraniecki, DTM