C24+ Closes Out Year with Lively Family Event

By Vimal Kothari

HOUSTON: Club 24 Plus ended the 2016 event calendar with a celebration for the holidays with a luncheon for its members and their children, held on last December 11 at the upscale Tony Vallone’s eatery Ciao Bello on Sage and San Felipe. The event was held in the restaurant’s spacious indoor patio. The natural lighting and interesting mosaics on the wall lend a lovely charm to the overall ambience.

About 115 people attended the lively, fun filled event. The guests arrived for the festive occasion dressed up in the Christmas spirit. Samosas and other snacks were served along with ice tea and soft drinks. Everyone had an opportunity to mingle with each other and was seated at beautifully decorated tables.

Pradeep Gupta, President, Club 24 Plus welcomed everyone to the holiday event. He was appreciative of all the members that attended the over-subscribed event. He introduced the chair of the event, Savita Rao. She, in turn, requested some of the younger kids that attended to come forward and introduce themselves. About 8 children spoke and introduced their parents and in some cases grand-parents that attended the event with them.

Following the introductions, Rao and committee member Hansa Kothari organized a Christmas Trivia game. Kothari had a stocking filled with Christmas trivia questions and about ten members were chosen, at random, to help answer these questions. It was fun to watch some of the adults struggle with Christmas trivia. Luckily, the organizer allowed the audience to help answer the questions.

Following the game, the famous Tony Vallone Italian lunch was served. This consisted of a delicious Vallone salad followed by a sumptuous choice of chicken frascati, eggplant parmigiana or paglia fieno Genovese. This delicious dinner was topped with a to-die for chocolate cake, traditional Indian “mithai” sweets and coffee.

Rao and Kothari then kicked of the White Elephant game, in which the members could pick any gift from the table of gifts in return for the gift that they had placed on the table. Gupta closed off the evening by announcing that the next Club 24 event will be a Valentine event to be held at Maggiano’s restaurant in early February 2017.