A Christmas Dinner

I walked over to Spaniard's place around 7:00 pm to begin preparing my dishes for tonight's Christmas dinner.  I could have cooked at my own apartment, but Spaniard thought it would be more fun to cook together.  One might say that I can get a little bit stressed in the kitchen (read:  I'm a complete obsessive-compulsive lunatic who sweats and swears and should be avoided at all costs when wielding a paring knife), and as Spaniard has yet to see that side of me in our few short weeks together, I tried my best to rein it in.  I started with the artichokes...I have never cooked artichokes in my life, so I don't know why I would choose tonight to experiment.  Nevertheless, Spaniard suspiciously gave me a glass of wine to ease my nerves.

Around 8:00 pm the neighbors started to arrive.  Fran was first, and kindly contributed her knowledge and experience in the art of cooking artichokes.  Before long, the apartment was filled with fellow Melrosians and the accompanying sounds of laughter and the clinking of wine glasses.  I was still sweating away in the kitchen.  Around 9:00 pm, cooking completed and looking like a domestic train wreck, I downed the rest of my wine and ran upstairs to my apartment to take a shower and make myself presentable.

By the time I came back down to Spaniard's place around 10:00 pm, the party was in full swing, and I was the only one who was sober.  Realizing that food was the last thought on every one's minds (and not wanting my fantastic-looking artichokes to go to waste!), I herded everyone to the table, spread with festive holiday dishes.  Sensing my stressed-out sobriety, I was ordered to partake in two consecutive shots of vodka to allow me to quickly catch up with the others.

We all sat down at the table and merrily gorged on the good food and good wine.  After dinner, we proceeded to play "Dirty Santa," a game synonymous with Christmas parties in which each guest brings a wrapped gift and the players must take turns either choosing a gift from the pile or stealing a gift from someone else.  Reliving my cruise ship days, I hopped up on the dining room table to play emcee for the increasingly raucous game, thanks to the tequila shots.  The game came to an end, I stole back the Scrabble game I had brought, and the music volume was taken up a few notches.

And.....blackness......