Here are a few photos of the End-of-the-Year party yesterday at the Joe's Pond Association Recreation Area Pavilion. There were, at least 130 people in attendance - a really good turnout of JPA members. President Tom Dente kept the business meeting short, and the congenial group kept the social hour long - extending into late afternoon.

Members brought appetizers, and such a wonderful array of tempting tid-bits deserved proper attention, and I think everyone was impressed with the variety. Someone mentioned to me that "these ladies sure know how to cook" - and of course everyone who has one of the Joe's Pond cookbooks knows that is very true.

Chef John "Woody" Woods of Cabot did a masterful job of cooking for the group. He brought along two Danville High School students to help serve, and had a young man who aspires to attend the Culinary Institute assist him. The meal was delicious and served buffet style - and while the line leading to the buffet table was long, it moved at a reasonable rate.

The vegetables and salad were made by Garey Larrabee at Hastings Store, and everything was delicious. Garey also made luscious lemon squares for dessert. Evelyn Richer made two huge and beautifully decorated cakes - and I'm sorry we don't have a picture of that table - I think Fred was way more interested in sampling the cake than in taking pictures at that point.

One thing many people had difficulty with was the noise level. Several mentioned to me that in the pavilion it is very hard to make oneself heard when there are so many people talking at once. I was happy to be able to report that the problem was addressed at the last JPA Board meeting and already there are some plans afoot to get that corrected. Larry Rossi has some good ideas, and I'm pretty sure something will be done to make large groups more comfortable.

Unfortunately, quite a few people were confused about when our last meeting would be. We normally have our meetings on Saturday mornings and social gatherings in the evenings. Next year we will try to make arrangements firm when the newsletter goes out so there won't be quite as much confusion. We posted information here on the blog several times, but since some people either don't have computers or don't read the blog on a regular basis, there was confusion.

It was a great party, and we are truly sorry that some members were not able to be there; and we sincerely apologize to those of you who missed the party because you didn't realize exactly when it was to be held.

We hope everyone has a healthy, safe winter, and we look forward to seeing you back at Joe's Pond meetings and activities in 2008. In the meantime, we hope you'll watch the blog for the latest news from the North Country. I'll be posting minutes of yesterday's meeting very soon.