2022 Upcoming Club Events
Club Christmas Party &
White Elephant Gift Exchange
It's that time our year again for the Thunderbirds of Southwest Ohio annual club Christmas gathering. We are diverting from our usual practice on having the event at the MCL cafeteria. This year we will be at the Florentine Restaurant in Germantown, Ohio. The festivities will begin at 6:00 pm with the ordering of our dinners from the menu. Following our meal, we proceed with the White Elephant gift exchange.
Back on March 26th of this year, our club activity was lunch at the Florentine. The atmosphere just begged us to consider it for our Christmas party this year. The place was reminiscent of days gone. Before it was converted to a restaurant, the Florentine was a hotel. It was the second oldest inn in Ohio and was opened in 1814-1816 by Philip Gunckel, the founder of Germantown. In 1862, the new owner, William Leighty, changed the name to the Leighty House. The Florentine has hosted several famous Americans including Henry Clay, Secretary of State to John Quincy Adams and Clement Vallandingham, a notorious Southern sympathizer. The hotel was again sold in 1911 and renamed The Florentine Hotel.
The hotel’s most impressive features are the beautiful wooden center staircase, the ornate wrought iron rail balcony on the hotel front, and the main room fireplace which is original to the building. The most recent addition is the picturesque bar that reportedly has origins in Europe and once served in an ice cream parlor in New Orleans before finding its home in Germantown.
By 1940 the hotel was primarily a local bar with a few live-in tenants. It closed in 1974 until purchased and restored by locals in 1976 and re-opened as a restaurant in August 1979.
If you plan to join us at our Christmas gala, please be sure Roger & Lisa (our president and treasurer) know. Lisa is handle the arrangements and needs to provide the restaurant a fairly accurate head count so they know how many places to set.
Please see the article in our October 2022 Newsletter to familiarize yourself with the rule of play for the White Elephant gift exchange. Each individual planning to participate, must bring and gift to add to the pile.
Hope to see you all there.
White Elephant Gift Exchange
It's that time our year again for the Thunderbirds of Southwest Ohio annual club Christmas gathering. We are diverting from our usual practice on having the event at the MCL cafeteria. This year we will be at the Florentine Restaurant in Germantown, Ohio. The festivities will begin at 6:00 pm with the ordering of our dinners from the menu. Following our meal, we proceed with the White Elephant gift exchange.
Back on March 26th of this year, our club activity was lunch at the Florentine. The atmosphere just begged us to consider it for our Christmas party this year. The place was reminiscent of days gone. Before it was converted to a restaurant, the Florentine was a hotel. It was the second oldest inn in Ohio and was opened in 1814-1816 by Philip Gunckel, the founder of Germantown. In 1862, the new owner, William Leighty, changed the name to the Leighty House. The Florentine has hosted several famous Americans including Henry Clay, Secretary of State to John Quincy Adams and Clement Vallandingham, a notorious Southern sympathizer. The hotel was again sold in 1911 and renamed The Florentine Hotel.
The hotel’s most impressive features are the beautiful wooden center staircase, the ornate wrought iron rail balcony on the hotel front, and the main room fireplace which is original to the building. The most recent addition is the picturesque bar that reportedly has origins in Europe and once served in an ice cream parlor in New Orleans before finding its home in Germantown.
By 1940 the hotel was primarily a local bar with a few live-in tenants. It closed in 1974 until purchased and restored by locals in 1976 and re-opened as a restaurant in August 1979.
If you plan to join us at our Christmas gala, please be sure Roger & Lisa (our president and treasurer) know. Lisa is handle the arrangements and needs to provide the restaurant a fairly accurate head count so they know how many places to set.
Please see the article in our October 2022 Newsletter to familiarize yourself with the rule of play for the White Elephant gift exchange. Each individual planning to participate, must bring and gift to add to the pile.
Hope to see you all there.
