The Baptist Life holiday dinner party

[William Thornton]

The BL family top commenters have decided to have a holiday dinner party. Keith, Fox, Flick, Haruo, Sandy, ET, Dave, Neil, Ed P, Timothy, myself, and spouses will be present.

After considerable negotiation the following ground rules were adopted:

1. There will be no discussion of politics whatsoever.
2. There will be no discussion of theology.
3. The weather will not be discussed, not even in the most casual manner.
4. One sarcastic comment gets the speaker a warning; a second causes loss of dessert; a third and the vile offended is expelled.
5. Each and every conspiracy theory should be checked at the door and picked up on the way home and are totally banned from the gathering.
6. No charts or graphs. Period. Doesn't matter how cute they are. No charts.
7. No discussion of denominational politics, Baptist, Methodist, moderate, liberal, conservative, fundamentalist.
8. No discussion of the latest outrage du jour, LGBTQEIEIO incidents, florists, bakers, butchers, or candlestick makers.
9. Conversation shall beheld in English, not Esperanto.
10. NCAA football shall not be discussed.
11. There will be no mention of a string of random names, phantom connections, Birchers, Birthers, Spartanburg FBC, Molly Worthen or any other obscure character.
12. There will be no reading assignments given.

This should provide the groundwork for a very pleasant evening. Perhaps we could talk of grandchildren and the latest additions to Haruo's hymn collection.

[Dave Roberts]

You omitted the NFL and college basketball. At least we can "discuss" those.

[KeithE]

Thanks for the invite. But it sounds too boring.

[David Flick]

[Haruo]

Hymns run a real danger of alluding to theology. But I guess I could watch an NFL game for the sake of peace in the home. What's the menu?

[William Thornton]

[Tim Bonney]

It might have been easier to say what we CAN talk about.

I think definitely the menu will make or break this event!

[Haruo]

Mrs. H says she is planning to bring a Chinmoku Rice Pudding with plenty of cinnamon. Flick can have a serving in memory of Keith.

[William Thornton]

[Tim Bonney]

[Tim Bonney]

Oh, and I'll bring a bottle of Welch's Grape Juice, the most truly Methodist beverage.

[Dave Roberts]

Perhaps we can honor the new POTUS-elect by having rump roast--one letter short of his name--served with rum cake for desert--rum being two letters short of his name.

[Stephen Fox]

You're welcome to come.

Two venues. Liberty Baptist Church just North of Henegar, Alabama for the Sacred Harp singing

And the Sacred Harp Singing at Pine Grove three miles for the house, or two as the crow flies on DeKalb Mtn 4 miles south of Collinsville.

[Mrs Haruo]

Haruo was disappointed that though there were 3 kinds of stuffing (including gluten free for my nieces partner who has so many food allergies that "T" learned to cook because "B" cannot eat so many products that are on the grocer's shelves) but no green bean and crunchy French's fried onion cassserole on my sister's table last Thursday. He made a special trip to the store today for a couple cans of fried onions, and made a great green bean dish for our supper tonight. I nominate him to make the green bean "hot dish". Sweet potato fries should be the right color to go with the rump roast.

[Mrs Haruo]

Is this dinner party dead before it got started? Surely somebody else is going to bring something to eat? Or are we just going to sit and stare at each other?
I suppose I could dig out the Monopoly game.....or would you rather play Scrabble? Somebody put another log on the fire. We got a sprinkling of snow and the power went off for awhile so we need to take the chill off the house.

[William Thornton]

Monopoly seems appropriate since greedy capitalism is in, although I used to play a lot of scrabble.

[Tim Bonney]

I was thinking "Trivial Pursuits."

[Haruo]

Monopoly is too mainstream. TP is more fitting, right down to the connotations of the abbreviation!

[Sandy]

I think we should hold the dinner party just prior to the Peach Bowl, then watch it on television without comment.

[Haruo]

[Mrs Haruo]

Is the dinner party over? Has it not started? I am getting so bored I am tempted to start a food fight. Or should I feed the turkey to the cats?

[William Thornton]

I've been waiting for Haruo to submit the song list from his most obscure song books in his collection.

We're good on the food, having voted that if someone objects to a dish they can not eat it.

The list of prohibited topics has been expanded a bit, "fake news" and the day glo Seattle Seahawks uniforms have been added.

[Haruo]

All depends on what you mean by obscure... in any event, I've got to get Mrs. H. bundled up and off to California before I can come to the party. I'm glad you banned the Seahawks uniforms! I hope saying that doesn't get me expelled. I see where Comey think Putin won the election...