Comfort, joy & tradition

It's interesting the way traditions develop. I have learned that throwing a dinner party is outside of my comfort zone and so friends will instead phone up and invite themselves over at non-meal times. Another local couple like to throw a large dinner party on Boxing Day and invite a cheery bunch of ex-pats. This year they will be away and so have brought in a workaway couple to house-sit. We have been invited to dinner to meet the workaway couple so that we can be their point of contact should any difficulties arise. We are not necessarily expected to provide solutions for every eventuality but we are likely to know where to find solutions should they be required.

This one-sided dinner party arrangement has developed some traditions of its own. The menu is always the same. The wine is always the same. We always bring a large bottle of identical wine. When the party is large and on Boxing Day we will also usually provide a broccoli or a cauliflower and some sweet potatoes from the garden, if not for use that same day then for later use by the hosts. Tonight's party is small and the hosts will be out of the country in the next few days so we aren't taking any veg with us. We do also traditionally dress up the bottle in some form of themed fancy-dress just to add a soupçon of surprise to proceedings.