Holiday Party- 2011

The annual Holiday party was held at Chandler's Restaurant in Schaumburg on Saturday, December 3rd. The festively decorated room put 68 attendees in the holiday party mood. The center pieces on the dinner tables showcased plush bears that had the CTCC emblem emblazed on their wee little tee shirts the bears wore! So very special and each member got to take them home. Dinner included delicious cream of chicken soup, salad, choice of chicken marsala, roast beef or orange roughy along with roasted potatoes, and a medley of vegetables. Dessert was really special as we celebrated 50 years as a club with a beautiful cake that helped mark this anniversary. Congratulatory messages were received in the form of a plaque and a letter from the CTCI president, Chuck Korenko and a congratulatory message from the Region II Director, Gwen Stadstad. Bert Eisenhour was also mentioned as being the Bird News Editor for 41 consecutive years. .Lloyd Schellin and Karen Kelly sang a happy birthday duet together to honor the occasion!

A gift table was bulging with gifts and gift certificates that were donated by vendors and members. As a name was drawn from a "hat" you walked up and took whatever caught your eye. The gift table gets better each year as items are added that included surprise bags that contained "girly" items too!

President Pete Kramer presented a past president plaque to Len Keil for his dedication and service to the club over the past years. Pete also introduced Tom and Aimee Lentz and thanked them for their dedication sending out the Bird News by email each month. They were made honorary members and were presented name tags which also included an invitation to attend all our events in the future. The Bert Eisenhour Award was presented to Ken and Kathy Smizinski for their never ending service to our club and always stepping up to serve.

Our new member, Debbie Powless had written an article on her acquisition of a Thunderbird and her thoughts on our club which was published in the "Old Cars" magazine. This article was passed around for all to read.

In closing, we watched the video of our year in review whicl\was put together with significant pictures taken by members and accompanied with fMnglhe event music by
one of our members son, Steve Kramer. Everyone went home with a copy of the DVD.
It was a momentous evening and was enjoyed by all members. We will all look forward to the 2012 schedule which is full of interesting and fun events including many more day cruises and events.

Marylu Kramer