Shepherd's Bush Retreat Banquet

I've dragged this out as long as I could.  All good things must come to an end . . . why?  I think I want to be adopted by Tina and Terri . . . or at least be their sister !!!

Saturday night September 29th was the final gathering of the Shepherd's Bush Retreat 2012.  We lined up outside the banquet hall in our Christmas finery waiting for the fun to begin.  We were greeted by "Natasha" (a friend of theirs that has done characters for banquets in the past) . . . she's very entertaining!  We found our table (there were sign-up sheets to reserve seats with friends the day before).  We couldn't fit all our friends at one table because small groups had signed up at each table and that didn't leave enough room for our group to all be together . . . didn't really matter . . . we enjoyed our table mates.

All the donated ornaments were spread out on tables and we were given our "claim number" and were to pick up our exchanged ornaments at the end of the night . . . they were all nice and some super cute ones!

The tables were all festive:

The salad was delicious as was the Pumpkin Soup!

There were gifts on the table and Christmas Crackers.  Our friend Caroline (from England)  gave a demonstration on the correct way to "crack" your crackers . . . very much like breaking a wishbone with someone.  They were filled with jokes,  puzzles, trinkets . . .

and paper hats!  We read our jokes out loud at our table. 

Then Tina and Terri wanted the men (some came with their wives on the trip and were able to attend the banquet) to come up to the front.  Terri told them that we wanted them to be included in the festivities.  So, they were to decide together which Christmas song they'd like to sing to us and sing it.  They were great sports and actually sounded pretty good!


There was an envelope on the table and we were to pass it around and pull out one thing that we must do and have our table mates figure it out . . . it might be a charade, or draw a picture, or hum a Christmas song, etc. 

When we finished that, we were to pick a table representative to stand with a provided tablet and marker to write down the answers to Christmas trivia questions read by "Natasha".  The table would discuss the question and come up with the answer in 30 seconds.  Terri timed it and Jeannette blew the whistle (which she got in her Christmas cracker) when the time was up.  If you got it right, your representative kept standing . . . and if you got it wrong, she sat down and your table was out.  There was a prize for the winning table at the end . . . we did well, but we didn't win  : (


Our friends from the Penthouse dinner got up and sang a song about R&R's Retreat coming up the first weekend in October of 2013 . . . it was quite clever.  A lot of the same designers and attendees from this retreat usually go to the R&R retreat since they have their retreat on the off year from Shepherd's Bush.  Can't wait for that one too . . . a little closer to home so I can drive!

    Dessert was also delicious and pretty! 

Then came time to open our gifts.  There were stitched paper stockings  at each place with boxes inside (again, the attention to detail to make it so special).    Inside, a darling pair of scissors with either a naughty or nice fob attached . . . how did I ever get the nice one!


The evening was over and we hugged and said our goodbyes to friends and our thank yous to Terri and Tina and all the designers.  We went to the ornament table and claimed our exchange number.

Hmmm . . . kind of looks like my number was changed . . . did someone want a different one?  . . .  it's cute . . . and it was about the donation to buy the sheep anyway. 

The ornament I made had not been picked up yet, so we waited a few minutes.  The woman that got mine had been in the shop the day before and I had spoken with her.  She had picked up the free chart for the biscornu and I told her that I had made it for my ornament.  She said "I hope I get that one!" . . . and she did!!  She was so happy which made me happy as well!

AND A GOOD TIME WAS HAD BY ALL!!!!!!!!!

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