Florida Estos

Santa Claus/Jõuluvana joined 45 holiday spirited members and friends of the Estonian Society of Central Florida (Kesk Florida Eesti Selts) for a traditional Estonian holiday dinner at 2:00 pm on Saturday afternoon, December 9, 2017, at the beautiful home of Kaie Põhi Latterner in North Redington Beach, Florida. Friends came from as far away as The Villages, Kissimmee and Naples in Central and South Florida, North Carolina, and Annapolis, Maryland. Snowbirds have returned from Estonia, Texas and Washington DC. We were especially delighted to welcome new members Jüri and Barbara Pill, Birgit and Vincent Delaidatti and Monika Mägi who joined the Estonian Society of Central Florida (Kesk Florida Eesti Selts) this year.

To make sure Santa Claus/Jõuluvana could find us, we enlivened the party by singing some holiday songs in Estonian and English. Santa Claus/Jõuluvana, of course, each year looks forward to being entertained by our members who come prepared with poems, songs, and dance. Our seven children–Brook and Chloe Cabrera, Isabella and Mateo Lorenzo and their cousin Leila Eelma, and Kevin and Oliver (who also celebrated his 6th birthday today!)–absolutely delighted Santa Claus/Jõuluvana again this year!

Three co-hosts made this fabulous party possible: Kaie Põhi Latterner, Anneliis Kuusik and Virve-Kai Bulla, who together make catering for large parties go seamlessly. Like last year, we served traditional Christmas food–roast pork, mashed potatoes and gravy, sausages, potato salad, red cabbage and rye bread by our wonderful German caterers, plus Anneliis’s traditional Estonian cranberry sauce and special Estonian-style sauerkraut, plus homemade Christmas sausages (verivorst) by our own KFES elves, and desserts that included a cake and kringel and traditional piparkokid prepared by Virve-Kai Bulla and Anneliis Kuusik. This sums it all up in one word: Yum! Special thanks to Eric Cabrera, who also served as our parking director, and Dallas Dishmey for doing the heavy lifting cleaning up post-party.

Guests arrived at 2:00 and normally our luncheon events conclude by 4:00 pm. Well, not today! Everyone had such a joyous time gathered together, our members finally made their ways home by 7:00 pm. Now that’s testimony to how our members feel about spending good times together! We take this opportunity this time of year to wish you and yours blessings of the season. Rõõmsaid jõulu pühi!