But it didn't feel like Christmas!

Let me hasten to point out that my harsh headline is not a reflection on Mic and Mat's prowess has hostess and host, not at all, indeed the company, the food, and the event itself were indeed sublime, even from all reports the bits of it from which I were absent didn't appear to suffer. It's just that my personal take on the event involved a sudden-onset illness of strange and ridiculously discomforting effect before I could partake of much of the food or any of the drink.

Between the hours of lunch and well after dinner my view of the world was mostly through closed and unconscious eyes. When they opened at all it was to view the Christmas tree, apparently on it's side, from my recumbent position on the couch.

I did wake once, late afternoon, in a lather of sweat and shivers, and made my way unsteadily and cautiously to a discreet corner of the garden intent on emptying the contents of my stomach as quietly as I could. Unaccustomed as I am to this sort of malady, I was until that time unaware that my definition of "quiet" does not correspond with another more popular view, nor that doing so over a plant with large and springy grass like leaves would not provide the discrete outcome I had been seeking.

Alas, what I now know that I did not then, was that large and springy grass like leaves when loaded with a syrup of yesterday's breakfast, actually fight to overcome their load by springing it in a fine mist in all directions bar the one from which it had arrived.

Fortunately when facing circumstances like this, the "we'll probably laugh about this later gene" kicks in, and so it was that I was able to return to my repose, leaving the rain to tidy up.

On our arrival at home that night, after finally waking in time to see the dinner plates being cleared and feeling well enough for nothing but a sliver of Christmas Pud with a trickle of custard, to pack and drive home into the night (because I was the one who hadn't had a drink after all), it was difficult to believe I hadn't just made it all up.