Had a blast at a church party yesterday evening, and for little introverted me, that's saying something. Usually volunteers from the congregation cook the turkey and ham, but this year they decided to avoid salmonella all together and had the event catered. We all just brought the desserts (soooo many desserts, that ranged from chocolate cake and pumpkin pie to pineapple and spring rolls).
Our church congregation represents people from all over the world. At my table, we had people from Poland, Lithuania, India, and the U.S. and Canada. The next table over was a Chinese family with darling daughters all dressed in festive red dresses with white faux fur trim, looking like mini members of the Supreme Court. (For non-Canadian readers, here's a photo from the SCC website to illustrate what I mean:)
After dinner there was a short program of various singers, ranging from a small child singing beautifully in French to a Chinese gentleman singing Mary, Did You Know in a wonderful bass. There were sing-alongs and flute/piano duets. At the end of the program, we all sang Feliz Navidad, and to my surprise, the room erupted in people dancing and eventually forming a sort of loose conga line weaving around the tables -- Jamaicans, Chinese, Africans, Europeans -- though I noticed the actual Spanish-speakers of the room sat grinning at a table in the corner and didn't join the dance. Hilarious!
Anyway, it was a surprisingly enjoyable evening, and I had a nice conversation with the Polish lady to my left whom I had never met before. Each Sunday in December, before the service, we invite anyone who wants to to come up to sing Christmas carols around the piano. She told me she didn't think she could sing, but she did a fine job with the sing-alongs, so I'd love to have her join us for the carols tomorrow and hope she comes. Everyone needs song in their lives, whether they think they're good at singing or not.
And then, in true Church fashion, it was all cleared away and cleaned up in about five minutes afterward. Came home and snarfed a few of my leftover toffee cookies and went to bed feeling very pleased with myself. I socialized! And lived to tell about it.
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