Christmas Dinner
December 25th 2008 04:28
Today, Christmas Day, my wife and I were going to be on our own – all the kids having hived off to various in-laws. So we decided a few weeks ago that we’d go and help at the Church of Christ Christmas dinner. It’s put on by the church (and has been for 19 years) for people who don’t otherwise any special place to go on Christmas Day.
Though at first it seemed a bit chaotic when we arrived, it’s actually very well organised. You do have to work out for yourself which particular job you’re going to take up; there are people in charge, but they don’t tend to tell you do something specific. Most of the routines are written up on notices on the walls, and get ticked off as they’re done. So it was a matter of checking was what still to be done and then finding out where to do it (!)
We put sweets on plates, and puddings in the right ‘serveries’ and distributed potato chips around the tables and carted things from A to B. Eventually when the people arrived, my wife became a ‘host’ at one of the tables, and I got myself behind a pot full of potatoes and served them out. The hosts sit with a bunch of the guests and get their food for them.
That can be a bit of a mission when you have a number of different requests, but the food itself was limited to a basic choice of sliced hogget, ham, potatoes, peas, carrots, corn, gravy and sauce, so it’s not as difficult as it would be if there was a wide-ranging menu.
There were a number of people I knew there – both hosts and guests, but there wasn’t a lot of time for stopping to chat (apart from when the guests were first arriving). Dunedin being the sort of town it is, it would be hard to be at an event like this and not recognise half the faces.
A number of the guests have disabilities (they’re brought to the meal by various volunteer drivers) and there were a good number of people from halfway houses and boarding houses. And then there were some people who just came because they felt like it.
Someone played the piano a lot of the time – we had a few carols as well – and there was a good air of conviviality.
I wound up drying dishes in one of the kitchens after my potato serving stint – endless dishes from both the first course and then the dessert. Plates and bowls and cups and glasses and huge pots and platters and everything. A nun whom we’ve known for many years was doing all the washing. Don’t think she got to do anything else the whole time, but she seemed very happy to just keep pushing the stuff through.
My sidekick when we were serving the potatoes was a lawyer who used to come into the bookshop. He was more interested in the secondhand books, but we had a nodding acquaintance. Got to know him quite a bit better today.
The photo was taken at the preparation for the dinner on Tuesday night and comes from Dave Brown's blog.
Though at first it seemed a bit chaotic when we arrived, it’s actually very well organised. You do have to work out for yourself which particular job you’re going to take up; there are people in charge, but they don’t tend to tell you do something specific. Most of the routines are written up on notices on the walls, and get ticked off as they’re done. So it was a matter of checking was what still to be done and then finding out where to do it (!)
We put sweets on plates, and puddings in the right ‘serveries’ and distributed potato chips around the tables and carted things from A to B. Eventually when the people arrived, my wife became a ‘host’ at one of the tables, and I got myself behind a pot full of potatoes and served them out. The hosts sit with a bunch of the guests and get their food for them.
That can be a bit of a mission when you have a number of different requests, but the food itself was limited to a basic choice of sliced hogget, ham, potatoes, peas, carrots, corn, gravy and sauce, so it’s not as difficult as it would be if there was a wide-ranging menu.
There were a number of people I knew there – both hosts and guests, but there wasn’t a lot of time for stopping to chat (apart from when the guests were first arriving). Dunedin being the sort of town it is, it would be hard to be at an event like this and not recognise half the faces.
A number of the guests have disabilities (they’re brought to the meal by various volunteer drivers) and there were a good number of people from halfway houses and boarding houses. And then there were some people who just came because they felt like it.
Someone played the piano a lot of the time – we had a few carols as well – and there was a good air of conviviality.
I wound up drying dishes in one of the kitchens after my potato serving stint – endless dishes from both the first course and then the dessert. Plates and bowls and cups and glasses and huge pots and platters and everything. A nun whom we’ve known for many years was doing all the washing. Don’t think she got to do anything else the whole time, but she seemed very happy to just keep pushing the stuff through.
My sidekick when we were serving the potatoes was a lawyer who used to come into the bookshop. He was more interested in the secondhand books, but we had a nodding acquaintance. Got to know him quite a bit better today.
The photo was taken at the preparation for the dinner on Tuesday night and comes from Dave Brown's blog.
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