December Update from Alex...

Alfisti,

Holiday Greetings to you all! Final planning is going on with our Hampton Roads Alfa Holiday Party, which will be hosted by Jerry and Betty Lake on the 18th of December. If you haven't already responded to their invitation, please do so, as it will greatly help Betty and Jerry get ready for the party. Jerry can be reached by e-mail at jerry.lake@cox.net.

As usual, we will be having our "Italian Gift Exchange", where each person attending the party is asked to bring a small gift, with a value of less than $10. These gifts should be wrapped. Upon arriving at the party, place your gift under the tree and you will get to pick a numbered piece of paper from a hat (or other similarly technical device). This paper will be your number for the gift exchange. The basic rules of this little game go like this: Each person having a number gets to choose a gift, beginning with number one and continuing consecutively. The hitch is that the next person in line can either take a gift from beneath the tree, or choose to take a gift that a previous person has chosen. This goes on until a person has held a gift three times (they get to keep it the third time they get their hands on the same gift), or when the person with the last numbered ticket has chosen a gift. I know it may sound complex to those of you who have never played this game, but it's a lot of fun!

Jerry and Betty have decided to make the party 'interactive'. Essentially, everyone is asked to bring Italian wine and food (pot-luck style), and each wine/ food will have a short presentation describing its background and the region of Italy it has come from. Jerry has already made up some "teams", and if you haven't already started your planning...please get in touch with Jerry for details. He can explain this much better than I can.

In other club news, Dale Thomas had surgery recently and is recovering very well at home. We sure hope that Dale is well enough to join us for our upcoming events once his jaw is no longer wired-shut (Skip tells me I could benefit from that type of thing!). Unfortunately, Eva Lynn Trump's Mom recently passed away. She has been away and busy in Western Virginia over the past couple of months helping with her Mother's illness. On behalf of the club, please accept our condolences Eva Lynn. It would appear that our old friends, Dan and Ruth Korolyshyn (Joanna Griffin's parents) will be returning to Hampton Roads from their four year sojourn in Italy. It will be great to have them back in the fold!

Rick Triebwasser continues to do a great job with our BLOG/ Web-site. Please go and have a look at all the great club information available at http://hraroc.blogspot.com. If you click the 2005 calendar link, you will see a tentative calendar for club activities for the upcoming year. Please let me or Rick know if you have anything you would like to add or change on the calendar. We will be trying to coordinate the calendar with activities put on by the Raleigh/ Durham and Winston-Salem Branches, as well as seeing if we can coordinate our activities so that we can meet up with the AROC Capitol Chapter for at least one event. If you would like to help with any event, please let me know, as we need "event coordinators" and committees to organize and run each activity.

Speaking of which - Rick Triebwasser has suggested that we cure our 'January Blues' by having a little bit of racing action using Go-Karts. Please let Rick know how many of you would like to do that. Tentatively, a date of 22 January seems like it might be a good day for doing just that! Our next meeting (no December meeting because we will be having the party in its place) will be held at Delargy's Bistro in Hampton on the 17th of January at 7PM.

The 'Retired and Wanna-be Retired Alfisti Lunch Club' is growing in attendance. Last Friday, 12 of us met for lunch at a Bistro in Virginia Beach. If you think you'd like to try and make it to one of these 'impromptu' lunches, please let me know so that I can add your name to the invitee list for future lunches. Normally, we will try and give at least one-day's notice. Usually, one of us comes up with the idea about once a month, but these are not planned events...just an opportunity to get together and talk Alfas over a sandwich.

As the holiday season rapidly approaches, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your friendship and support. We have a great club, and that is something for which we should all be thankful. Petey and I wish you and your families a very safe, happy and healthy holiday.

Cheers,

Alex Csank
Meeting Facilitator,
Hampton Roads Alfa Romeo Club