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 on Saturday afternoon, December 9, 2017, at the beautiful waterfront home of Kaie Põhi Latterner in North Redington Beach, Florida.

Friends came from as far away as Central and South Florida, North Carolina, and Annapolis, Maryland. Snowbirds have returned from Estonia, Texas and Washington DC. And we were especially delighted to welcome new members who joined this year.

To make sure Santa Claus/Jõuluvana could find us, we enlivened the party by singing 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, Isabella and Mateo and their cousin Leila, and Annapolis visitors Kevin and Oliver--absolutely delighted Santa Claus/Jõuluvana! 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 fare plus homemade Christmas sausages (verivorst) by our own KFES elves.

Normally our luncheon events are scheduled 2:00-4:00 pm. Well, we didn’t end early this day! 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 in the Estonian Society of Central Florida/KFES! You are welcome to join us too! To see our schedule of  upcoming events in 2018, please visit our website:

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Lisa A. Mets

Kesk Florida Eesti Selts