July 09 – Xmas in July @ Old Reynella

Hello Ladies! Welcome to the recap of the fabulous time that was had by all at 'Christmas in July',but first things first, welcome to our newest Ladies! We were very happy to welcome into our ranks, new Ladies Yvonne, Jolene, Trish, Wendy and Mel! - and ranks is the term to use all right, I believe that 29 Ladies gathered at one time does officially constitute a small but mighty army!

And what a wonderful Christmas it was! 29 fabulous Ladies joined together with wonderful food, fabulous company and best of all – presents!

Hosted at the wonderful restaurant Candles, in old Reynella, the food was delicious and plentiful and we were blessed with one fabulous waitress (who seemed to think we were her kind of Ladies, as she joined up too!), but were disappointed with the service by the other staff, not enough to ruin the beautiful atmosphere of the wood fires and wonderful Christmas decorations though.

The Kris Kringle presents were meant to be kept to a $10 minimum, but boy! Do we have some serious shopping experts in our midst! We had perfumes, wines and jewellery just to names a few. I received a much needed and beautiful jewellery box – just gorgeous, thank you Santa! With so much unwrapping joy going on, Awesome Anita and I decided to keep the ball rolling with the Christmas Raffle – as you all know, we have one raffle each month, but the elves work overtime in July and we had a grand total of 14 extras to hand out to the lucky winners! And the fun just kept coming...

All the meals were wonderful, my prawn salad entree was overflowing with yumminess and even tempted Lady Michelle into eating asparagus - her vegetable nemesis! It was a tough call between the fish, turkey breast or scotch fillet main, but with much deliberation and support from Ladies Rebecca Two, Lady Louise and Lady Crystal, I settled on the steak and was extremely happy. I didn't hear a bad word on any meal actually; other than a lost pavlova and physical restraints needed to keep Lady Nikki from inhaling everyone's broccoli. I can confidently say that the meals went down a treat.

This months Ladies Day LEGEND was none other than the fabulous Lady Crystal! She earned the great honour for two reasons – firstly, she has brought into the wonderful family of Ladies Day no less than FIVE new members but also because she represented a solid Truth of Ladydom – 'a Lady always has the right to change her mind'. A vegan through and through, Lady Crystal remained steadfast in her life decision..... then she went on holiday. Faced on her first night’s dinner of a B.B.Q., she saw a chicken breast and …... game over! And ever since, it's been, bring on the meat pies! And most importantly – with no apology or explanation! She is truly a role model to all Ladies, congratulations to LEGEND Lady Crystal!

The night kicked on well past dinner time with a wonderful aura of friendliness and companionship in the air, free from stress and drama, (apart from the RSVP's who failed to arrive, please Ladies, if you can't make it, let us know, as Awesome Anita and I, Amazing Aimee, have to cover the costs of no–shows due to our booking conditions), and to finish the night in true Ladies Day fashion, we were the last to leave the restaurant!. I must include a very special shout out to Lady Carol and Awesome Anita who even kicked on to the pub next door – go, you Ladies go! And with this, another fantastic Ladies Day came to an end.... then again, I haven't checked in on Lady Carol and Awesome Anita, maybe it's still going!

To finish on a high note, I am very pleased to announce that our silver coin donations that we collect each month for the RSPCA, and always seems so small, amassed an amazing $ 42.75 this month! That has desexed and placed in loving homes many animals so far and only more will follow. Be proud of yourselves Ladies and don't forget to check the ever rising RSPCA counter on our home page.

Counting down til next month already,

Love A & A