We headed round to John and Trish’s tonight for their legendary Christmas Meal. It’s usually our first of the festive period, but this year, we’d had the Northants Nutters round at ours last Sunday for an early Christmas get-together, and then met up with Dennis & Sandra on Thursday for more festive fare – so this is our THIRD.
What’s that famous saying? “Tired of Turkey, Tired of Life”??? (I may not have that quotation exactly right! 😁). In my world, you can never have too much Turkey!! 😀😋
We picked up Paul & Karen just after 6.15 and arrived spot on time at 6.30. Trish likes to kick things off early – and that certainly suited us!
We were soon chatting and tucking into the nibbles – but you can’t have nibbles without something to drink…
…and the beers and wine soon flowed! 👏👏
It’s not easy catering for so many people, but Trish always does a great job, and we were looking forward to it as much as any previous year! Generous portions all around as we sat down and got into the Christmas Spirit!
There were 10 of us around the table – the usual suspects – Paul & Karen, David & Rosi, Tom & Julie, us two and of course, our hosts.
As per normal, it was a real banquet. One of pretty-much every festive vegetable, plus Ann’s homemade Cranberry Sauce (with maybe more than a splash of Port in it!). Everyone did their part and brought along bits and pieces to make the evening complete! 👏👏. With so much food on offer, the chestnuts missed their calling and became spectators, watching us fill our faces! 😋😋
Whilst we might have won some awards for how good the food tasted, we struggled a bit with the obligatory seasonal selfie! 😲. We got there in the end, but the above was about the 10th take! What fun we had grappling with the wayward selfie stick! 😀. Whoever invented those, should be shot! 😲
Some things don’t change – including the quality of the cracker jokes – well, it’s all part of Christmas, isn’t it!?!?
Christmas Pudding
Pretty much all of us are fans of Christmas Pudding! Trish didn’t disappoint, and we had two on offer tonight. She’d cleverly repackaged them into boxes to make them look like she had bought them from a shop! Clever! 😁
And just like previous years, by the time we’d eaten every scrap of Christmas Pudding, we were stuffed! So we postponed the Cheese Course until later in the evening, making way for the annual quiz… Cue ME! 👍
The Quiz
In keeping with the previous few years, I volunteered to create a Christmas Quiz to round off the evening, thereby guaranteeing to give everyone indigestion and ultimately bring out all our individual and collective competitive spirit! 😬
This year, it was a slightly more sophisticated affair with multiple rounds… I’m not sure how it got this complicated, with music, red and yellow cards (I only issued one for an ‘accidental’ attack on a fellow team member – by their fellow team member! 😲😀) – all supported by PowerPoint! I was exhausted before I started!!!
Trish did the honours by picking names out of a hat to form the teams. The result? Trish & Paul, Rosi & David, Tom & John and Karen & Julie were duly paired up with Mrs P as scorer and yours truly as quiz-master. What could possibly go wrong? Five rounds, 5 points for a correct answer and 10 points for answering the bonus questions correctly. We’re off!
Round 1: Match the Lyrics to the Band Round 2: Name that (Backwards!) Tune Round 3: Guess the Drinks Logo Round 4: Christmas TV Adverts Round 5: Christmas by the Numbers
It was, as expected, a slightly riotous and noisy affair, with some of the Rounds being harder than others. A few of the (what I thought were) easier questions proved challenging, whilst one other – how many miles from John & Trish’s to the North Pole? – was answered in a flash… and correctly too! Amazing!!! Well done John! And Paul, proved really good at identifying Christmas tunes played backwards during Round 2. That’s a real talent! 👏👏
By the end of the Quiz, we had a tie for first place. Cue the tie-breaker question! Eventually, Paul & Trish were declared the winners, and they proudly showed off their winnings (A COVID Testing Kit) – and their ‘lucky’ buzzer!
The Cheese Board
It was time for the postponed Cheeseboard. The majority of us are ‘cheese-monsters’ – show us some cheese, and we’ll find our favourites in a flash and make them disappear in record time. With that sort of enthusiasm, a single Cheeseboard was never going to be enough, so, TWO was the order of the night… and that didn’t last long! 😲.
Much more merriment followed, helped along by generous bottles of ‘this and that’ – some alcohol-free too! 😁
…and so to bed!
The days when we might all stay up and chew the fat until the small hours are long gone! Us two were first to make the move at just before midnight, where we all agreed that it had been a great evening (it always is!). After wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, it prompted others to say their goodbyes too. This just left John & Trish to clear up the wreckage from another EXCELLENT get-together!
We can confirm we’re both now fully in ‘Christmas Mode’. Thanks, John & Trish! Merry Christmas everyone!! 👍👍🎅🧑🎄
I got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all its forms), together with a fondness for the art of writing seemed to be the perfect combination to contribute a few words to the online community. But I’m no Samuel Pepys! If you’re looking for deep and meaningful comments on a variety of subjects, then you’ve arrived at the wrong site! I only pen for pleasure! On average, my posts appear about twice per month, covering family & friends, cinema visits, eating out, holiday experiences and techy stuff. Oh, and as this is my hobby, there are no sponsored links nor adverts here – it’s all done with love!
I hope you find it enjoyable, interesting and occasionally, even helpful!
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