The Chirstmas party

Last Friday was the annual Christmas party at All Saints. We had never been before - and our neighbors had been working us over trying to convince us to come. It was going to be hard because we had to be in Louisville (actually New Albany) for a wedding the next day. It was going to be hard to go to a Christmas party on Friday night, and be in Louisville in time for a wedding Saturday afternoon. Especially a Catholic Christmas party - you know how those Catholics are...

But after several weeks of relentless hounding from Todd and Maureen - we sent in our RSVP. And Friday night, we loaded up in the car and headed for the church.

And boy are we glad!

It all started out like you would imagine any church Christmas party. There was food and everybody was sitting around tables talking. Except the first thing you would notice is the sheer number of people - I'm guessing there were about 700 people. And the second thing that would appear odd (at least to the non-Catholics) was the beer and wine table (provided by the church, of course!). So, we ate, we drank, and we were merry...

Then we move in to the next stage where the music starts. And this is where you need to meet Father Augustine. He's from Sudan and has been in the US for about 3 years. And he is has become fascinated with American customs - especially American dances. And the chosen dance for this night was the Macerena. Which was of course followed by the Chicken Dance! Oh my - he really had his groove on!

And the "ring leader" of the show was Father Michael. He's an Irish priest with an apparent love of red bow ties and dancing. He told a story of how he searched all over Knoxville looking for a red bow tie for the party and couldn't find one. then, while he was at Walgreen's filling a prescription, he saw a nice piece of ever-green with some pine cones and bells and (you guessed it) a big red bow! He bought it, pulled the bow off and used the bow as a bow tie.

Now, if you were to closed your eyes and imagined a very tiny, older (60-ish) Irish man - that's Father Michael. He's about 130 pounds soaking wet. But don't let his size fool you. After he ate, he headed out to the dance floor and spent the rest of the night there - twirling all of the ladies around. I can guarantee you that he had more stamina than anybody on the dance floor!

It was a great time and we'll certainly be going back next year. And we still made it to Louisville in plenty of time for the wedding...

And you may be wondering who was getting married? Well - that would be Heather Hill! There will be post about that too - but it will be a day or two. We need the time to sort through the pictures and pull out some of the best ones to show you! It was great (and her dress was beautiful!) - and we wouldn't have missed it for the world!