Topper's Dance Club; Mistletoe Ball 2009

You can dance anywhere, even if only in your heart. ~Author Unknown

It's The 2009 Mistletoe Ball


Mistletoe in the wild

The Topper's and members of the Petroleum Club have a join Christmas dinner-dance celebration. Please join us for the fun!

Did you know? - According to a custom of Christmas cheer, any two people who meet under a hanging of mistletoe are obliged to kiss. The custom is of Scandinavian origin.

In Norse mythology, Baldr was a god of vegetation. His mother Frigga, prompted by a prophetic dream, made every plant, animal and inanimate object promise not to harm him.

But Frigga overlooked the mistletoe plant — and the mischievous god Loki took advantage of this oversight, tricking the blind god Höðr into killing Baldr with a spear fashioned from mistletoe.

Baldr's death brought winter into the world, until the gods restored him to life. Frigga declared the mistletoe sacred, ordering that from now on it should bring love rather than death into the world. Happily complying with Frigga's wishes, any two people passing under the plant from now on would celebrate Baldr's resurrection by kissing under the mistletoe!

Let The Cavorting* Begin!

* play boisterously; "The children frolicked in the garden";"Topper's danced at the Petroleum Club"

Mistletoe Ball 2009
California had a 75 degree day and the east coast was snowed in!

Mistletoe Ball 2009
As we enter we find Ebenezer (Neal) Woolston hard at work in the office

Did you know? - Ebenezer Scrooge is the principal character in Charles Dickens' 1843 novel, A Christmas Carol. At the beginning of the novel, Scrooge is a cold-hearted, tight fisted and greedy man, who despises Christmas and all things which engender happiness. A quote from the book reads "The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, made his eyes red, his thin lips blue, and he spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice ..." His last name has come into the English language as a byword for miserliness and misanthropy, traits displayed by Scrooge in the exaggerated manner for which Dickens is well-known.

Mistletoe Ball 2009
We are entertained by the Little Big Band

Mistletoe Ball 2009
The trees were magnificent decorated with baubles

Did you know? - A bauble is a spherical decoration that it commonly used to adorn Christmas trees. The bauble is one of the most popular Christmas ornament designs, and they have been in production since 1847. Baubles can have various designs on them, from "baby's first Christmas," to a favorite sports team. The Polish name for these things is bombka (which translates as "a little bomb").

Mistletoe Ball 2009
The band is warmed up and ready to go!

Mistletoe Ball 2009
Bob promises to be RESERVED this evening...

Did you know? - The first decorated trees were adorned with apples, strings of popcorn, white candy canes and pastries in the shapes of stars, hearts and flowers. Glass baubles were first made in Lauscha, Germany, by Hans Greiner who produced garlands of glass beads similar to the popcorn strands and tin figures that could be hung on trees. The popularity of these decorations grew into the production of glass figures made by highly skilled artisans with clay molds.

The artisans heated a glass tube over a flame, then inserted the tube into a clay mold, blowing the heated glass to expand into the shape of the mold. The original ornaments were only in the shape of fruits and nuts.

After the glass cooled, a silver nitrate solution was swirled into it, a silvering technique developed in the 1850s by Justus von Liebig. After the nitrate solution dried, the ornament was hand-painted and topped with a cap and hook.

Mistletoe Ball 2009
Bob and Barbara... Bob was a professional Santa for many years

Mistletoe Ball 2009
Renewing friendships and catching up

Mistletoe Ball 2009
Sue visits and readies folks for the pictures

Did you know? - The first American-made glass ornaments were created by William DeMuth in New York in 1870. In 1880, Woolworth's began selling Lauscha glass ornaments. Other stores began selling Christmas ornaments by the late 1800s and by 1910, Woolworth's had gone national with over 1000 stores bringing Christmas ornaments across America. New suppliers popped up everywhere including Dresden die-cut fiberboard ornaments which were popular among families with small children.

By the 1900s, Woolworth's had imported 200,000 ornaments and topped $25 million in sales from Christmas decorations alone. As of 2009, the Christmas decoration industry ranks second to gifts in seasonal sales.. Gloria Duchin, Inc., just one of the industry's Christmas ornament manufacturers and designers today, has over 100 million ornaments in circulation and produces millions of new ornaments each year.

Mistletoe Ball 2009
Caught on the way to the dance floor. 

Mistletoe Ball 2009
Buck and Bobbie... Buck promises to wear something red next year

Did you know? - Red is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths of light discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 630–740 nm. Longer wavelengths than this are called infrared (below red), and cannot be seen by the naked human eye

In human color psychology, red is associated with bravery, purity, happiness, good luck, heat, energy, and blood, and emotions that "stir the blood", including anger, passion, love, pain, and sacrifice.

 

Mistletoe Ball 2009
Everybody is dressed to the Nine's

Did you know? - The phrases 'to the nines', or 'to the nine', were used to indicate perfection - the highest standards. That was in use in the 18th century, as here from William Hamilton's Epistle to Ramsay, 1719: "How to the nines they did content me."

Mistletoe Ball 2009

Mistletoe Ball 2009

Mistletoe Ball 2009

Mistletoe Ball 2009
Being a joint party our Presidents gets to relax... No announcements

Mistletoe Ball 2009

Mistletoe Ball 2009

Mistletoe Ball 2009

Mistletoe Ball 2009
What did Paul say to Neal???

Mistletoe Ball 2009
Nita and Neal make wonderful greeters...  The martini helps!

Did you know? - The martini is a cocktail made with gin and vermouth. The drink is almost always garnished with an olive or, less commonly, a sliver of lemon peel. It is often described as being "crisp"[citation needed]. Over the years, the martini has become one of the most well-known mixed alcoholic beverages. H. L. Mencken once called the martini "the only American invention as perfect as the sonnet", and E. B. White called it "the elixir of quietude".   It is the drink of the one-time "three-martini lunch" of business executives and dance party greeters!.

Mistletoe Ball 2009
The camera people sneak out from the back of the camera

Mistletoe Ball 2009
Gigi and Larry are ready to dance

Mistletoe Ball 2009

Mistletoe Ball 2009

Mistletoe Ball 2009

Mistletoe Ball 2009

Mistletoe Ball 2009
Jean and Sal are having a lot of fun!

Mistletoe Ball 2009

Mistletoe Ball 2009
The Ashcroft's take 10 seconds out for a pose

Mistletoe Ball 2009
They look like Mr and Mrs. Santa

Did you know? - Saint Nicholas of Myra is the primary inspiration for the Christian figure of Santa Claus. He was a 4th-century Greek Christian bishop of Myra (now Demre) in Lycia, a province of the Byzantine Anatolia, now in Turkey. Nicholas was famous for his generous gifts to the poor, in particular presenting the three impoverished daughters of a pious Christian with dowries so that they would not have to become prostitutes. He was very religious from an early age and devoted his life entirely to Christianity. In Europe (more precisely the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria and Germany) he is still portrayed as a bearded bishop in canonical robes. He is also the patron saint of both Amsterdam and Moscow.

Mistletoe Ball 2009
Kathy and Tom Berg

Mistletoe Ball 2009

Mistletoe Ball 2009
Joni James sings several Christmas numbers for the crowd

Mistletoe Ball 2009

Mistletoe Ball 2009
Dean and Lori always add cheer to the group

Mistletoe Ball 2009

Mistletoe Ball 2009
I told Santa you were good this year....and he hasn't stopped laughing since!

Mistletoe Ball 2009
Trying on the glass slipper... A real gentleman

Did you know? - The term gentleman (from Latin gentilis, belonging to a race or "gens", and "man", cognate with the French word gentilhomme, the Spanish gentilhombre and the Italian gentil uomo or gentiluomo), in its original and strict signification, denoted a man of good family, analogous to the Latin generosus (its invariable translation in English-Latin documents). In this sense the word equates with the French gentilhomme (nobleman), which latter term was in Great Britain long confined to the peerage. The term "gentry" (from the Old French genterise for gentelise) has much of the social class significance of the French noblesse or of the German Adel, but without the strict technical requirements of those traditions (such as quarters of nobility).

Mistletoe Ball 2009
Always remember the bartender!!!  She did a magnificent job this evening!

Did you know? - eight of Santa's sleigh loaded with one Beanie Baby for every kid on earth: 333,333 tons!