Catch up posts

I have noticed to my chagrin that I have not posted for over a month. To catch up I will pick events from the last month and tell about them, with pictures too. We had our annual holiday dinner for the friends we see every Monday night for dinner (at a restaurant). The hit of the menu was the dessert, which was Panna Cotta with a blackberry sauce.

The other ongoing tradition is to have a "White Elephant" gift exchange. I looked up the term "white elephant on Wikipedia and found this explanation: "The term "white elephant" refers to an extravagant but burdensome gift which cannot be easily disposed of, supposedly after the King of Siam gifted rare albino elephants to courtiers who had displeased him, that they might be ruined by the animals' upkeep costs." Below is a picture of our friend, Ed, opening the gift Gerry brought.

Guests are allowed to "steal" the gift from others.  Here Jerry is contemplating that. It was rather funny since I heard some wives saying "Don't you dare!"