Carols and Calories at the Christmas Party

This weekend was the annual double-header Christmas party at Chela Bhavan. Having the party on both Saturday and Sunday evenings ostensibly allows people who can’t make it to one come to the other, though they’re enough fun that a huge number of people just came to both.  The many potluck dishes included such Christmas miracles as: orange-enhanced brownies that melted in your mouth and in your hand; pumpkin cake, a magical combination of cake and pumpkin pie; and what became known as Asha’s “Jesus Cookies,” that she spoke about in Sunday service. (If you weren’t there, she described the making of them in relation to Meister Eckhart’s quote, “I move my hand and Christ moves, who is my hand.”)

After the eating, socializing, and satsanging, came the singing (an excellent warmup for when we’ll take the carols around the neighborhood next week.) “The 12 Days of Christmas” was a particular winner, both nights. Helen got us organized into 12 groups to coordinate the singing of all the different gifts, and would have had us acting them all out as well, if we’d had any space to maneuver in at all. Shanti led the charge the second night, in what became an even more rousing rendition, thanks to our previous practice. A glitch in the very last verse tempted some people to start it over from the beginning but they were, luckily, outnumbered.

We did manage to get a group photo, but only on the second night. Imagine this times two. More photos can be found here.