SBAMR 2010 (Or, A "Holiday Party"!)

I'm think I'm pretty good at resisting the typical marketing efforts I always get emailed/mailed to me by various retailers, but there's one I am always drawn in by: the Holiday Party.  If anything says, "Stock up on dishes for all your holiday parties!" or "Sparkly dresses for your Holiday Parties!" etc., I can hardly resist.  But it's silly, because I always realize (after thinking "Yeah!  I need this for my Holiday Parties!") that I don't really ATTEND any Holiday Parties.  Not fancy ones that require sparkly dresses, anyway (more's the pity).  Sam used to have a fancy work party but it's morphed from "Fancy party with Spouses and Drinking" (not that the two necessarily go together very well) to "Sort-of-Fancy Lunch for Employees only" to "Free Brunch from 11-2 in the Break Room!"  But I digress.

There is one Holiday Party, however, which I can count on attending.  It's an annual party Sam's family has for Adults Only (and only if you know how many kids a big Mormon family can amass do you appreciate the significance of that statement) at Christmastime, and this year we were in charge of it.  We are given great freedom in choosing foods, themes, etc. for this party, so it turns out differently (and wonderfully) every year.  I assume you know by now how much we love to be in charge of things: well, more accurately, you know how much Sam and I like to have A Project we can work together on.  Yes, indeed.  And so, I give you:

The 2010 Symposium on Breakfast and Ante-Meridian Repast (SBAMR 2010)
Sponsored by the Neo-national Association for the Conservation and Advancement of Breakfast (NOCAB)

Egg wreath!  Festive.  I found this craft in Martha Stewart Living.  (Joke.)

Invite letter.  Click to enlarge.  I suppose this was believeable enough because several siblings said they nearly threw it out as junk mail.  Rather hasty of them, don't you think?

NOCAB newsletter (enclosed with the registration letter).  Touches on historical roots of current controversies in the Breakfast Movement.

Decor

Place setting

Part of the buffet spread

It really was quite a feast.  If I may say so.

Name badges (distributed at the door)

As good as the food was, the real delight of the evening came when we began the symposium itself.  We'd mailed out the above schedule and hoped people would come through with some entertaining presentations, but we could not have POSSIBLY foreseen how amazing those presentations would prove to be.  AMAZING, I tell you.  As I set up the stage/podium before the party, Abe asked me if I wanted him to put the box of Kleenex by the podium.  I thought it was a funny idea (very observant, that boy; he knows what is required when Public Speakers are present) but I never envisioned us actually needing/using them.  But it turned out we DID---not for tender emotional moments, but for the sheer hilarity of it all.  We were WEEPING with laughter.  We couldn't even breathe at times.  Or, as President Monson would say: Many, many tears were shed.

I wish I had a transcript (or a video!  If only we'd thought of it!) of everyone's actual remarks.  The presentation titles in the schedule above can only give you a glimpse of the varied and informative topics which were touched upon.  We enjoyed:

originally composed Beatnik Bacon poetry

A heartfelt call for relaxation of our Cultural Biases in the selection and scope of Breakfast Food (and proposals for government subsidies/trade agreements encouraging same).  Oh yes---and did you note the egg-festooned Christmas tree?

An enlightening quiz covering facts and fictions about the History of Bacon

A re-written children's classic incorporating 15-minutes' worth of Broadway showtunes, impeccably timed and sung

A glimpse into the shocking secrets of breakfast-related murder and violence in the Great Beyond (complete with contemporary news accounts and a thrillingly revelatory seance)

 An impassioned plea for greater tolerance and diversity, including de-segregation, in Egg Color

A discourse on Breakfast in Art History, with stunning new discoveries from the field including deeper x-rays of the Mona Lisa and early sketches of Dali's "Persistence of Memory" (early working title: "Persistence of Yolks")

That intrigues you, doesn't it?  All right, I'll include those slides here:

And there was more.  Much, much more.  (Usually when someone says that it means "There was one more thing, which wasn't that great or I would have already listed it."  But in this case, believe me when I say that each presentation was equally stunning in its own way, and only space considerations and lack of pictoral/written images keep me from sharing them all.)  I will share my own contribution, for the sake of space, in its own post shortly.

To sum up: My only regret is not indulging in a sparkly dress for the event (Sam and I both wore "business pajama" attire, as we felt was more fitting).  But it was indeed a Holiday Party to remember, and one of the most enjoyable evenings we've had the pleasure of hosting.  Thank you to all those who had a hand (or mouth) in it.