Those there Friday evening gathered at Swingbellies for dinner.


After Rip spilled his iced tea they made him swab the deck...just like the navy days!!


Yowzer...Rip put the hat back on! And you think you have bad hair days?


Rip just can't hold his tea...he spilled his second glass..can't take him anywhere!


Friday night we gathered in the hospitality room for laughs and story telling.


Heather Hannum was a great helper with, greeting, decorations, and raffle ticket sales. We raffled off a quilt made by Kat Waterson, and a bottle of St. Augustine wine donated by Rip and Sharon Puls.


Tables were decorated for the Hoosier Lighthousing 2009 Gathering of Friends Christmas Party.


Thank you Kay Toth for saying the grace.

A table of festive party goers!


Calling All You Party Animals!


Dinner buffet line for prime rib and chicken.


Delicious cheesecake desserts surround a cheery watermelon snowman.


A pile of gifts waiting for someone to claim them.


Jodi Minton, Frank and Edith Olivera, and Dani Scott waiting their turn for the buffet line.


Everyone enjoyed a hardy and plentiful meal.


Sue Hannum one of the lucky winners!

Here are more pictures from the Hoosier Lighthousing Clubs annual Christmas Gathering.


Rip and Sharon Puls had the lucky ticket to claim the lighthouse quilt.


Carolyn McBee was our game girl, she hosted two games, "On The Rocks" dice game, and Christmas bingo...we all had fun.


Roy McBee heading to the gift table.


Dave Hannum chose his gift because he liked the bag...go figure.


Kat didn't have a choice...she got the last gift, brought by Shellie and Harold Breen.



Kay Toth, Sharon and Rip Puls.


Charles Berry enjoying time with friends.


Sunday morning we slowly made our way down to breakfast as we say our goodbyes and we begin to head for home.

Nice job Kat and Larry with the images.. I thought I would add a few of my images and since neither you (preparing the party) nor I(bad cold) made it to the lighting at the lighthouse maybe Dave or somebody else can add some of those..


Some of the door prize lighthouses that were given away..


Kat with the quilt that she made and donated to raise money for the club's general fund..


Kat and her able assistant Heather ready for the troops to arrive and the party to start.


Rip who with his wife Sharon drove up from Florida for the club gathering is buying some tickets for the opportunity to win the quilt.


The gift table for the gift exchange..


Our guests for the party from left to right..
Jackie, the Director of the Michigan City Historical Society, Virginia who is a Docent at the lighthouse/museum, Barbara who is not only a Docent but also is Fred's wife, Fred is the president of the Board of the Michigan City Historical Society.

The oranges at each place setting were fresh picked and hand delivered by Rip and Sharon to the party from Florida.

Sharon got to start off the food line..


Carolyn adding some chicken to her plate.


The Coles starting through the line..


I thought I would go ahead and include my image of Rip and Sharon with their new prize quilt, you can't have too many images of that beautiful quilt.


Doyne rolling the dice for one of the games that were played.

Looks like another fabulous Hoosier Christmas Gathering. Glad everyone had such a great time. The quilt is beautiful. Congratulations to Rip and Sharon. Congrats to all the winners. I was sorry to miss it. Maybe next year.

Another fine Hoosier Lighthousing meeting; thanks for allowing us to 'come along'. Please show the pictures of the the new LED decorations on OMC!

You guys look like you had a great time. Congrats on the get together of such a great group of Lighthousers!

Bob

Wow !!! Looks like it was a great party. Thanks for posting the pics !!!

Hopefully one of the other members who attended the lighting ceremony at OMC will be able to post some pics. I was at the Lighthouse helping string last minute lights before the grand lighting, but didn't have the camera with me. Kat had the camera and was setting up the party at the hotel. Sorry for no pics of the Lighthouse from us.

Larry Waterson

Friday night we had a rather entertaining dinner at one of our favorite places in MC, Swingbellies. We weren't in the main dining room, which was probably to our advantage. There is the possibility that we may be allowed back into the place. After dinner we retired to our hospitality room, which worked out great as far as I'm concerned. Several club families agreed to underwrite the cost of the room and the hotel made us a deal on a suite to use. It was really nice having a room that we could gather in and visit with our lighthousing friends.

Saturday morning some of us decided to take a side trip to Saint Joe on the hopes there would be some wind and wave action, maybe a little snow since not too far north of there was deep in snow. Well, even though no serious wave action we did have a nice, brisk day.



Roy, Carolyn & Sharon on the pier


I had never been to the Clementines in St Joe (the original in South Haven is a really great place), so we decided to head there for lunch. Had to start with an appetizer before our great lunches.



Just before we left, we noticed this person who must have really felt the need to paddle:

Returning to MC we stopped by the hotel for a short rest before heading out to the lighthouse to make last minute preparations before the lights came on. We had some last minute things to do to get the lantern room ready. Somehow we fit 4 of us into the lantern room (no easy feat if you have ever been there).

Doyne sets the last few hooks in place


Larry and Sharon placing one of the swags that would be in every other window


The plan is for lighted wreaths to be in every other window (with the lighted swags in the other windows). I'm happy with how the wreaths look, and the cool finial ornament I found to hang in the center of the lantern room. The swags show up, but I am a little disappointed in how they look (not the fault of the workers, the swags are just too 'stiff', not nicely flowing as I envisioned).



I had set the timers to come on at 4, just a little before sunset at 4:15. We didn't have the "throwing of the switch" as the lights are on two circuts, the second one being at the base of the lantern room and I wasn't in the mood to run up the steps any more than I already had. Anyways, here is the lighthouse with the new lights lit



Not too bad considering it was still before sunset. We posted some images of the light after dark with some of the new lights installed and lit. I didn't get back to the lighthouse after dark to get more pictures, but you can bet the lighthouse is now the star of the fantastic light display in Washington Park.

We may decide to add some lights for next year, who knows. I will be anxious to hear reports back from the historical society folks on how the community feels about the new lights.

Thanks Dave for the photos and the report. Great work everyone. Hard to imagine this is the Ninth Lighting!

Great pics Dave !!!

Especially those onion rings !!!

Added some winter pics in a new thread in the tourist section .