Betwixt and Between

A holiday table one more time.

As the days after Christmas waned and it wasn't quite time for New Year's Eve, it seemed just the time to do a spur-of-the-moment, holiday dinner party and set the table one more time with sparkling crystal and china to complement all the festive, seasonal decorations.  Our friends, Paul Birkeland and Diane Roberts, had recently married just 8 days ago which seemed a good thing to celebrate too!

Gordon Kuenster & Susan Neumann listen to
Paul Birkleand tell of the romance.

Susan & Gary Neumann offered to bring the Manhattans (Susan makes the best Manhattans!) and Diane Kuenster offered to bring the cute Christmas Tree butter which she had tracked down online.  Kathleen & Tom Schafer, Sandi & Tim Premselaar and Paul all brought wine and it was a party.



Tim Premselaar, Diane Kuenster, Tom Schafer and
newlywed, Diane Roberts Birkeland



Gary Neumann, Sandi Premselaar, Gordon Kuenster &
Susan Neumann



Once we sat down for dinner, Ken announced that we would go around the table and each person would have 60 minutes which he quickly amended to 60 seconds to tell us about themselves.  He started with the newlyweds, and just as Paul was telling us the story of their romance, Ken announced that his time was up and that he must cede the floor to the next person.  The rest of us at the table complained because we were enjoying hearing the story, but Ken had his vision of how the conversation should progress and insisted Paul's time was up!  It may have been the Manhattan talking or Ken may have been re-living past Board meetings that he chaired, but he enforced his time limit as we progressed around the table.  However, once we had pretty much heard very briefly from everyone, Ken relaxed his ironclad grip on the conversation and we turned to more casual conversaton with one another.



Kathleen and Paul and I discussed the upcoming ZINO Society Walla Walla Spring Wine Adventure that we are putting together for the last weekend in April.  This should be a very fun weekend with wine tastings and meals planned at some of the great wineries in Walla Walla including established wineries and up-and-coming wineries as well.  Details are still being confirmed, but it looks like it is shaping up to be a fantastic wine experience.

As the dinner party wound down over Bananas Foster accompanied by 20 year old tawny Port, we toasted the newlyweds and we toasted the upcoming New Year.  Cheers to 2011!