It was a “Ho-Ho” Rotary meeting, not a “ho-hum” one.  With the holiday ahead of them – indeed, with the prospect of the club’s annual Christmas party that night – the Los Altos Rotarians were in a festive mood.
President JOHN MOSS gaveled us to order, JANE REED led us in the pledge, and SHIV SHASTRI took us through the paces of “Have Yourself a Very Merry Christmas.” 

The thought for the day was provided by CLYDE NOEL, who shared an original poem he’d written called “A Rotarian Christmas.” 
 
We had a visiting Rotarian from Mobile, Alabama, who took quite some time to introduce himself.  This reporter didn’t catch his name but did catch the drift of his remarks:  It’s a great club; come visit them some day.  Lots and lots of Los Altos Rotarians introduced guests.  People with guests included JACK KELLY, DICK HENNING, Herb MarshaLL, DENNIS YOUNG, SANDIE WHIPPLE, JEANNE MACVICAR, and BOB ADAMS.

ANNOUNCEMENTS
The club will “go dark” the next two Thursdays.  Don’t show up at the Garden House, because nothing’s happening there.  ROY LAVE has organized not one but two lunches at Chef Chu’s.  To sign up, go to our new ClubRunner site or contact JOANNE BYRNE. 
 
JANE REED introduced the new Los Altos Chief of Police, TUCK YOUNIS. 
 
DENNIS YOUNG announced that we have a new Guy Shoup fellow, our Red Badger MARV PATTERSON.
 
GINNY LEAR was re-awarded her community service award from the Board of Realtors.  This time, her name is correctly spelled.  The message:  “GINNY LEAR rocks as a volunteer.”
 
NANCY SIMON encouraged folks to contribute to the Community Service Agency toy drive.  The deadline was December 21, so you’ve missed it.  But thanks to all who participated and to Nancy, for taking the lead on our behalf.
 
HERB MARSHALL, wearing his head-of-LAREF Contributions hat, introduced two guests whose organizations have received funding from LAREF.  So we heard interesting presentations from the Mountain View-Los Altos Community Scholars and the Los Altos High School Robotics Team.  So many ways Rotarians get involved!
 

Luncheon Caterers Honored
As our tradition, we honored our caterer, Schumann's Four Seasons Catering and his staff with a small Holiday Gratuity to show our appreciation for their food service during the past 12 months.   

A Ten-Minute Talk by STEVE GRUBER
STEVE GRUBER is a 23-year veteran of LARC, but there were still new things to learn about him. 
He grew up in Huntington Beach, with great views of the oil wells there.
As an estate-law layer, his website (ca-trusts.com) gets 13,000 page hits a month.
He had a brief career in the Coast Guard, on a minesweeper in S.F. Bay.  Mines detected:  Zero.  Good!
He had a career as a San Jose Mercury reporter, covering San Jose City Hall and a number of interesting politicos.
He’s a bicyclist, specializing in hills.  He’ll have ridden about 3,500 miles in 2007.
He, his lovely wife Alice, his son and two cats all wish us the happiest of holidays.
 

A Fine Fine-master Finally Finagles a Few Fivers
Despite a packed agenda, we actually had time for fines.  DICK HENNING did the honors.  His approach:  Describe a Rotarian and ask the some victim to guess which Rotarian was being described.  So easy!  Everyone guessed correctly, which to this reporter demonstrates the fact that we are, indeed, a community of people who know and like each other. 
 

The Mountain View Madrigals Make Music
How does one describe music?  Rich?  Complex?  Compelling?  Harmonious?  Haunting?  Humorous?  All these words apply to the songs we heard sung by these talented young people from Mountain View High School.  Singing A’Capella, they performed ancient and modern tunes with smiles on their faces.  They even sang in Gaelic!  The Madrigals have done 56 performances since Thanksgiving, said their director.  LARC is delighted to have been among them. 
 
That’s it for 2007.  Here’s a prediction:  2008 with be great.