President Bill Mathy opened the meeting by choosing Lauren (Jahncke) Flueckiger to lead us in the Flag salute.

A delicious dinner was served along with Bill Mathy’s favorite Two Buck Chuck wine.

Dan Kiernan suggested we boycott Bill from selecting the wine. The rest of us guzzling aficianados appeared to enjoy it just fine.

Santa Claus aka Jim McKamy wished us all a Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year and gave candy canes and cookies to the deserved ones (who else but the children).

Rotary business was waived in favor of our Christmas program, and what a wonderful program it was! We were treated with traditional, popular, spiritual, jazz, Jewish, Spanish, and Ukrainian holiday songs.

Andy Alvarez from Eastside Christian High School led his talented choir in several traditional songs. His selections included the Ukrainian Carol of the Bells, What Child Is This, Christmas Bells are Ringing, Weep No More, Make We Joy, and more. Each was outstanding!

Evie Holopoff from Eastside Christian Elementary School sang a solo of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” and directed and choreographed a jazzy medley of eight snow songs for her young choir ranging from “Let It Snow “ to” Zoot Suit Santa.” Her girl’s choir brought the house down with a rousing rendition of “Santa Baby.” Wow! They were good!

Ben Makino was outstanding in filling in for Scott Hitchcock (ill) as he led the choral group from Fullerton High School. They entertained us with the Caroling Song, Chanukah O Chanukah, Silent Night in Spanish (Noche de Paz), Deck the Halls, and It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. Again, the performance was excellent!

To round out the program, we all joined in to sing Joy to the World, Angels We Have Heard on High, Silent Night, and White Christmas.

President Bill ended the fun filled night with a toast: (after complaining that the President was the LAST one to get a glass of wine.) Merry Christmas to his Christian friends, Happy Chanukah to his Jewish friends, and to his atheist friends - Good Luck!

Announcements:

1. If any of you took photos of the Family Christmas Party, please give a copy to Bill Mathy. Photos are needed to validate our celebration to District Rotary.

2. Next meeting is January 7, 2004. It's our Irish coffee meeting so bring a good joke with you. Actually, it doesn’t have to be a good joke because, as you have experienced, it won't be appreciated anyway.