Julie and I at IPMS/Gateway's 2023 Christmas Party

After getting off work last night (19 December), I drove to Julie's apartment to pick her up and then take her to Affton Elks Lodge #2635. This month's IPMS/Gateway meeting was also the annual Christmas Party.

Julie and I parked at the Elks Lodge and we brought our things into the hall. I brought some tortilla chips and salsa, while she had some sliced bread. We put our items on the buffet table and waited for the meeting to start.

After club president Marion Morris called the meeting to order, we lined up to get dinner. I let Julie go first, then got myself into line. We had quite a few members with several guests--mostly significant others. The club bought meat from Smokee Mo's Arnold BBQ Restaurant and bottles of soda, while club members and guests brought the side dishes and desserts. Nobody came away hungry from this dinner.

After the meal, Morris was presented a certificate from the Civil Air Patrol for recently building a model of a CAP aircraft from World War II for the Jefferson Barracks POW-MIA Museum. 

This was followed by elections for club officers. I was unopposed for secretary, so I will be back in that office in 2024. I was also on the ballot for Gateway's Bob Stroup Award for Member of the Year. Three other members were nominated. This award will be presented at next month's meeting.

Morris then ran the annual Recognition Contest, in which members saw images projected against the wall and had to choose from multiple choices on the answer sheet. Julie also played along. This year's contest theme was "Wrecks," with images of wrecked aircraft, ships, armored vehicles, automobiles, and miscellaneous items (mostly science fiction; Julie is quite good with that). I tied two others with the highest score of 20 correct out of 25. I won the tiebreaker and received a Hawker Hurricane kit as the prize.

Speaking of kits, there was finally a raffle of kits the club bought that all members in attendance each had a chance to win. My ticket was one of those picked and I selected the Artemis I space launch vehicle kit, which recently came out.

Julie enjoyed her time there, chatting with a few of the other members in attendance. As the meeting broke up, Julie and I packed up our things and got into my car. Then, I took her to her home, Julie and I hugging and kissing in the car before she left. We will touch base regarding Christmas early next week.

Later.

Websites of Entities Mentioned in this Post:

Affton Elks Lodge #2635: Lodge #2635 Welcome (elks.org)

IPMS Gateway Chapter: IPMS Gateway Chapter (google.com)

Smokee Mo's Arnold BBQ Restaurant:  Smokee Mo's Arnold BBQ - Best BBQ Restaurant In Arnold (smokeemosarnoldbbq.com)

Civil Air Patrol: Civil Air Patrol | Civil Air Patrol National Headquarters (gocivilairpatrol.com)

Jefferson Barracks POW-MIA Museum: Jefferson Barracks POW/MIA Museum | A Promise Made, A Promise Kept (jbpow-mia.org)

Julie and I Take in BandTogether's Holiday Concert

Last night (16 December), I drove up to Julie's apartment. There, she and I got into her vehicle and we went to 560 Music Center in University City. This facility hosted the annual Holiday Concert of BandTogether, a Metro St. Louis volunteer music organization.

After parking in a nearby garage, Julie and I walked through a light rain to 560 Music Center. We first went into the Pillsbury Theater for a pre-show featuring the band's 12-person color guard performing a routine.

Following the pre-show, the audience made its way to the E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall for the concert, whose theme was "You Better Sleigh!" They performed five selections in the first act, including instrumental versions of "Santa Baby" and "Go Tell It on the Mountain." Julie and I attended last year's concert, and we were really enjoying this year's show.

A 15-minute intermission followed, which included another show in the Pillsbury Theater by the color guard. They danced and twirled flags to the Christmas song "Underneath the Tree." They did quite a beautiful job.

It was then back to the Concert Hall for the rest of the concert. The band performed five more selections, including "Laughing All the Way (For all who love snow...)" and "All is Calm," based on the classics "Jingle Bells" and "Silent Night," respectively. The house lights were brought down for the latter number, and audience members lit electric candles (or in Julie and my case, our cellphone lights) during the performance.

Prior to the final number, "Choose Joy," the conductor expressed his thanks to all who supported BandTogether in the past year. He also paid tribute to his mother, who passed away just days before, and it was hard for him to keep from tearing up as he talked about his mother. Julie and I agreed this was an honest gesture on his part.

The band performed an encore number, "Sleigh Ride," before the concert finally ended. Julie and I walked out happy, as did everyone else in attendance.

After walking back to the garage and getting back into her vehicle, Julie and I headed back to her apartment. I stayed around with Julie and her apartment mate Joan, who was nursing some soreness and had passed on going to the concert. I enjoyed a mug of hot chocolate as we watched a few YouTube videos projected onto their large screen TV. We saw several videos from Six13, a New York-based Jewish a capella group who did song parodies tied to Hanukkah, which just ended the previously Thursday. They did songs based on "West Side Story," "Hamilton," and "Star Wars," as well as music by Billy Joel. We agreed Six13 did a terrific job on these Holiday-themed songs.

After that, we saw an 60th anniversary special episode of "Doctor Who" on Disney+. Julie is a big fan of the series and recently went to "Doctor Who" themed First Friday at the Saint Louis Science Center. In this episode we saw, Doctor Who and his assistant went back to 1925 London to take on the Toymaker, who was trying to turn an early experiment in TV transmission into a present-day torment for the world. I found it very entertaining; however, I was also really tired. With that, I called it a night and drove home, stopping on the way home at White Castle for some sliders.

When I got home, I found that my mailbox had been knocked a bit off base and its front hatch removed from the box. I didn't understand what could have happened. This afternoon, I called the police who came out to have a look. The officer noticed a scar on one side of the mailbox which I had not seen before. This officer believed some drunk motorist hit the mailbox last night before I got home. He also found the front hatch and reattached it to the mailbox. The officer said he would look elsewhere in the subdivision, but thought it was an isolated case. I was glad to know that and thanked the officer for coming for a look.

Later.

Websites of Entities Mentioned in this Post:

560 Music Center: E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall | 560 Music Center | Washington University in St. Louis (wustl.edu)

BandTogether: BandTogether – St. Louis' LGBT+ Band and Colorguard since 1997 (bandtogetherstl.com)

Six13: Six13 | Being Jewish never sounded quite like this

Doctor Who: Doctor Who | Home

White Castle: Home - White Castle