This year, the club had its annual Holiday Dinner at the Steinhaus Restaurant, located in the Alpine Village, in Torrance. Thirty-nine members and their significant others attended, and were treated to thematic table centerpieces of models of London landmarks including Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, a London bus, the clock tower home of Big Ben, and Tower Bridge. At each seat was a box in the shape of the storied red English phone box, and which contained pretzels covered in chocolate and caramel. The table decorations were created by Steve Lombard, who also hand made the pretzel confections.
The room had a big screen TV that had a slide show of various club events from throughout the year, courtesy of the photographic talents of our President, Zelda Davis. The food was very good and was topped by a wonderful Black Forest cake for dessert.
Everyone was given a raffle ticket with a wide variety of gifts: gift certificates from two of our favorite suppliers, British Parts Northwest (for $100 and $50), and Victoria British (for $50); some upscale cleaning goodies from Griot’s Garage and California Car Cover; and, lots of other good stuff right down to a selection of genuine English candy bars.
The Club demonstrated its charitable side by giving a donation to the Spondylitis Association of America. Spondylitis is a form of arthritis of the spine. Everyone brought children’s toys for the Spark of Love Toy Drive. This year the toys were collected by Los Angeles City Fire Department Station 97.
The evening was topped off with a 50/50 raffle, where members buy tickets and the lucky winner walks off with half the pot, which was $180. Jay Cohen had Gayle Cohen on his arm and Lady Luck in his pocket and left the restaurant $90 richer than when he came in. 
We thank everyone who participated to make this event a success and hope see even more members at the 2016 Holiday Party.
Written by Bill Willen.
