February 14, 2015

Valentine's Day!  Our rehearsals and practising made this a very entertaining evening for all (I hope, anyway!).  Susan and I hosted a half hour of entertainment before the Valentine's Day dinner which Dora and her family cook and serve every year. The tables were beautifully decorated, the meal was awesome, and our half hour was very well received.  Joan wrote the script which Susan and I stuck to for the most part, and Susan did her usual masterful performance on the trumpet, wowing us all with her renditions of  My Funny Valentine,  Shall We Dance,  I'm Getting Married in the Morning, and The Way We Were. It's really quite amazing to listen to a professional of Susan's calibre [Susan Slaughter was Principal Trumpet of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra for 40 years, and still performs in ensembles and for solo gigs - I have one of her CDs which I listen to while driving].  I sang Can't Help Falling in Love, with my guitar, and Ashton (Ron and Dora's 11 year old grandson) played Love Me Tender on the flute.  We had a singalong session, too - I had put out a questionnaire at the potluck a few weeks before, in an attempt to find out what people would actually like to sing, and again for the most part, we stuck to those choices.  People sang lustily and in large numbers - it was awesome audience participation!  We ended with When the Saints Go Marching In - and then dinner was served!  Really quite a satisfying evening!  Since I was standing up mc-ing for the whole time, I didn't take any pictures, but I'll try to get some of the  photos Ron took.