As promised, here’s a short summary of the events of last night.

Due to some folks arriving fairly late, we didn’t actually get started until after 8. There were 16 in attendance. We had Smoking Bishop, hot cider, coffee, and lots of pie. 5 pies, to be exact.

Stave One took almost an hour, which was a bit of a surprise to me. I thought it would take about a half hour. Thanks to my special effects department, the bells ringing in Scrooge’s house was quite effective.

I think that the glossary was very well received, with people reading up on the upcoming stave in each of the breaks, and then seeming to get the various jokes that were explained in there, as well as getting some of the other statements that tend to just confuse people. I was planning to put the glossary here for download, but, upon more thought, I’ve decided not to. It contains several blatant copyright violations, and so was probably appropriate for a small gathering, but not for general distribution. Sorry.

The other staves ended up taking longer than expected, too, and so we got done around 11:30, which was almost an hour later than my longest estimate.

I also took with me my entire Christmas Carol collection, including my 1916 printing, which is the oldest copy I have. The cover is in terrible condition, so I very seldom so much as take it out if its plastic bag. Perhaps some day I’ll manage to find an older copy, in better condition, which I can afford.

There were 2 pies left at the end of the evening, but almost all the Smoking Bishop was gone, and all of the cider was gone. So that was good.

Thanks to everyone who came. Maybe we can do this again next year.