On Tuesday, December 4, 2012, twenty-one members of The San Saba Garden Club gathered at the historic clubhouse in Mill Pond Park for a Christmas Celebration. The whole purpose of the day was to have fun and get to know each other better: by strengthening our relationships with each other we strengthen the performance of our club.Our wonderful old building was beautifully decorated by our resident interior designers, Gail Bruner and Anna Wilson. There was a Christmas tree, candles, and a Santa in every direction – made and painted by resident artist extraordinaire Anna Wilson! Poinsettias, grown by our former member Mary White of Cherokee Valley Farms, added color to the scene. As guests came, they were greeted by the hostesses and asked to put their ‘white elephant’ gift on the overflowing table. Hostesses Gail Bruner, Anna Wilson, Ann McElroy and Clione Rochat, chair, invited the members to help themselves to refreshments from a table laden with traditional goodies: a cheese ball accompanied by Savory Shortbread crackers; a crudité plate with dip; cheese straws; three flavors of toasted pecans; pecan tassies; sand tarts and linzer cookies with homemade plum jam – none of which had any calories! Our lovely punch bowl held a delightful cold punch and we also offered ice water to accompany the sweet and savory treats; it was, after all, eighty plus degrees.When everyone was sated and caught up on all the ‘news,’ President Ann McElroy told everyone to check the number they had drawn earlier. It turned out that the lowest number was two, held by one of our newest members, Nancy Van Etten. If you have ever participated in a ‘Chinese Gift Exchange’ you know that she was sitting on prime real estate. She not only got to choose the first gift, but she had the right to look over all the opened gifts at the end and choose her favorite! If you happened to be passing the clubhouse about 3:00 you might have heard some loud laughter as the gift exchange progressed. There was some heated exchanges as Shirley Dickison and Carol Littlefield dickered over some of the gifts but it was all in good fun and everyone had a relaxing good time. And, unbelievably, almost everyone went home with the gift they originally opened – they all seemed to be a good fit.No business was discussed – we just had a good time. January 2013 will be here before you know it and the committee that is planning the 77th birthday bash for January 8, 2013, is hard at work. We want to put all former members on alert to save that afternoon for the party – we want all of you to come. We also invite prospective new members. It will be a shower for our historic clubhouse – bring dish towels, service items and small appliances. Those attending the December affair were: Pat Belk, Gail Bruner, Judy Brister, Sharon Conyers, Marcie Cooper, Shirley Dickison, Trish Fullerton, Dianna Furlan, Imogene Hawkins, Sharon Hayes, Sandy Kuykendall, Carol Littlefield, Ann McElroy, Lynn McHenry, Marilyn Miller, Becky Moore, Andrea Robinson, Clione Rochat, Jeanne Sauer, Nancy Van Etten, and Ann Wilson.