Let's see.... Starting last Friday... I cooked most of the day, getting prepped to cater the Concealed Carry class.

Saturday, I fed 22 people lunch as part of the class. Chicken casserole, salad, green beans, homemade rolls, and a variety of cookies for dessert.

Sunday, I worked up my grocery list for this week & hit several stores getting everything together.

Monday, I started baking... I did mint oreos dipped in white chocolate, "magic bars" (chocolate & coconut), and bourbon dipped fig bars coated in dark chocolate.







Tuesday, I made Oreo truffles, buckeyes, and jam cake with caramel icing:







Wednesday, I made a batch of Christmas fudge:



Then one of my oldest friends came by & picked me up to head to Lex for the TSO concert. The concert was really good - not their BEST in my opinion - but a really fun show nonetheless. And we were seated right up by the stage. As I put it, we were just about close enough to roast marshmallows in the pryrotechnics!!!















And best yet, we stayed after the show for the "meet & greet" with the band!!! AND IT WASN'T ANNOUNCED SO HARDLY ANYONE WAS IN LINE!!!!! I got to meet & say THANK YOU to the folks who have been such a huge part of my Christmases all the way back to 2008... Jeff Plate, Kayla Reeves, Chris Caffery, Zak Stevens, Roddy Chong, Russell Allen, Natalia Rose, Georgia Napolitano.... They were all so gracious & friendly! I told Chris & Zak that if Savatage (their original pre-TSO band) ever decides to tour the US, I don't care what it takes, I WILL BE THERE! And they both assured me that plans for a US tour are in the works!! Woohoo!!!! ROCK ON!!!!!!!

Donna dropped me off well after midnight Wednesday night and I had to be back up early Thursday to meet with my lawyer. Then to meet with my financial advisor. Then back home to make a big batch of bourbon pecan bread pudding and a huge tray of creamed corn. I was almost finished with those when I got a call asking if I could run back to town and pick up the awards for last night's dinner. So back to town I went. Just get back in time to start loading up all my fixin's and head to the club to help with the rest of dinner preparations.

Then it really got interesting.... We served somewhere around 60 people last night. A full Christmas dinner. City ham, country ham, turkey, brocolli casserole, creamed corn, roasted vegetables, deviled eggs, rolls, and all my desserts. I was handing out bottled water when some big burly fella I'd never seen before came running over & grabbed me in a bear hug while yelling "Honey, that jam cake is the best thing I've ever eaten!!! If my ex-wife had cooked like that, I'd still be married!!!!" All I could do was laugh & laugh & laugh while saying "Thank you!"

After the dinner, we had the formal meeting & annual elections. Our president from teh past 10 years was stepping down, along with the vice president, and half of the board was up for election as well. And our resident parliamentarian happens to be an older fellow who adopted my entire family when we first joined over 25 years ago. So he drafted ("volunTOLD") me into assisting with the election process. I got to distribute & collect ballots and then count and certify them. We've elected a good fellow for president & the new board members are solid... Gotta bad feeling the new vice pres is going to be a problem though. (Hint: my vote for that position was "None of the Above"!!!)

As his last official act as Pres, Dave took the opportunity to give the 2025 President's Award to me and the rest of the Membership Committee. We each got kuddos & a neat personalized birdhouse with the club logo, the date, and our names.

After all that, those of us on the kitchen committee still had to stay around and clean everything up. WHEW. It took a while. I'm happy to say that over 90% of the stuff I fixed was eaten. The only leftovers I had were a couple slices of jam cake, two pieces of fudge, 5 or 6 oreo truffles, and about 8 magic bars. Everything else was GONE!!!

I dragged in jsut as the snow was starting last night. We got about 4" as best I can tell so I'm now snowed in until it melts - which may be a while given the temps that are forecast for the next few days!

So now I'm finalizing my Christmas shopping & working up budget requests for the kitchen committee, the membership committee, AND the ladie's group (hopefully the grant we've requested from the NRA will help with the last one but who knows?).

Just hope I can make it out hte road early Monday morning. My big & furry beast is scheduled for his first ever official grooming. I don't know whether to say "Wish me luck" or "pray for the groomer"... I'm betting he will NOT be cooperative!