Christmas Message from Margaret

Dear Members,

A few evenings ago, our Honorary President, Donna Thomson warmly welcomed CWC members and friends to the High Commissioner's Official Residence. Following our tour of the amazing works of art in the Residence, we were delighted to have Canadian pianist, Annie Yim play some of our favourite Christmas carols. It was indeed a lovely evening and our sincerest thanks to Donna for her kind and generous hospitality.

Annie wrote me to say how much she enjoyed meeting CWC members at the Carol Service and on the Art Tour. If you would like to hear this very talented young Canadian perform, she will be playing at St. Martin-in-the-Fields on Friday, January 9th 2009 at 1:00 pm along with Portuguese violinist Emanuel Salvador.

Although we are all busy with Christmas events and activities at this time of year, your hardworking executive has been also busy planning our schedule of exciting outings for the New Year. If you have a chance over the holidays, please pick up a copy of Camilla Gibb's book, Sweetness in the Belly. It is a great read and Camilla will be joining us at our February hospitality. Taking place on the 15th of January, Canadian author, Jordan Lancaster has especially invited CWC members to the UK launch of her book, In the Shadow of Vesuvius: A Cultural History of Naples ...(see our website calendar for details). We are VERY excited to have Bronwyn Cosgrove speaking to us at our special hospitality morning on January 29th. Please save the date and do invite friends.

I am personally very much looking forward to catching up with some reading over the holidays including Joseph Boyden's Giller Prize winning novel, Through Black Spruce and perhaps one or two of the books nominated for Canada Reads 2009. Whether you are staying here or traveling back to Canada for the holidays, I very much hope your Christmas celebrations are truly special.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

Margaret Wickware

December Hospitality

As in previous years, CWC members gasped in amazement at the beautiful Christmas decorations at the home of vice-president Patty Bell. Patty certainly has more Santa ornaments than most of us put together, and we loved seeing her festive arrangements once more for our December hospitality morning.


As well as chatting with old friends and new, we all had a chance to buy items brought along to raise funds for the Maple Leaf Trust, including Hazel Simpson's gorgeously hand-crafted cards and the dazzling jewel and bead key rings brought in by Anne Van Gieson.



And as always, the pot luck lunch was superb! We CWC members certainly know how to throw a wonderful pre-Christmas lunch, and many thanks again to our hostess, Patty.