With “The magic of believing” as theme, the meeting was festive and full of cheer. Limited to Zoom, and with many people already engaged in Christmas activities, we were low in numbers  – thirteen, with no guests – but high in spirits.

Nelum, Toastmaster for the Evening, proved herself a swan. Her frantic paddling (her confession!) was not seen as she glided serenely through the evening. In welcoming everyone to the evening, she invited us to enjoy this special and “heartwarming” season.

Suzanne’s joke continued the theme of Christmas, with a myriad of seasonal puns (Laura B’s word of the evening) and Oana’s table topics were well chosen, eliciting thoughts about a happy place from Jessica, random acts of kindness from Vicki, confessions from Peter (naughty or nice?), ideas for a dream gift from Laura B, Christmas movies from Tricia, and compliments from Cindi.

Suzanne gave a wonderful performance of “The Night Before Christmas” and then came the speeches. Anäelle was praised by Martin for her Icebreaker, presented confidently and without notes, and for her frank tones and self-deprecatory style. He encouraged her to use more drama and emotion in future. Silvia complimented Jessica for standing to speak, which gave her poise and energy, and commended her organization and willingness to inject personal details. Noting that Jessica has good body language, she recommended that she should employ more open gestures. Tricia enjoyed Siobhan’s speech and ability to communicate her passion for her subject but recommended that she slow down, explaining any references that might be unfamiliar to the audience, and maintain a single tone.

Vicki , grammarian and stumble catcher, complimented the group for an exceptionally good evening with very few stylistic errors, and Laura B reported that seven people had used the word of the evening, myriad. Cindi, as general evaluator, noted that although the evening started late, the time had been made up. She suggested that the table topics had produced good responses and said that the speeches and evaluations had been excellent. As all three evaluations ran over time, the voting was limited to table topics and speeches, won by Vicki and Tricia (tied) and Siobhan respectively.

Hoping to see you at the January 4^th meeting, which will be on Zoom again.