SLG Christmas Lunch

Hard on the heels of our Probus Christmas Lunch on Tuesday, we repeated the format the next day, meeting up with our SLG friends for our last outing of the year.  Helen was in charge of the day, and she had arranged a lunch out out “Porterhouse Blues” in Upper Hutt.  Which meant an early start for us, living as we do now up at Levin.  The weather was warm, but very wet and misty, and Kapiti Island seemed just a figment of our imagination as we drove along the coast road.  It was out there somewhere, but invisible as it was shrouded in low cloud.  The closer we drove to the Hutt Valley, the harder the rain started to fall.  Isn’t it meant to be summer now?

Not our usual summer weather

There was a set Christmas menu to choose from, and it didn’t take too long to decide on hot ham for him and fish for me, followed by Christmas puddings twice.  You just can’t go past a good Christmas pudding at this time of the year.  Helen had decorated the tables with choccies for us all, hats, and crackers, and a pretty floral centre piece.

The Christmas lunch menu

  What a happy bunch

After lunch we retired to Helen and Calvin’s home for a cuppa, Christmas mince pies, and home baked shortbread, followed by our gift exchange.  Everyone had brought along a gift and placed it in the basket.

Wonder what I’ll get?

But is was not as simple as everyone merely choosing a gift.  Oh no – to first get a gift, you must get a six on the roll of the dice, then you choose and open your gift.  The next person to roll a six then can then choose another gift from the basket, ort they might decided that they really want your gift and take it off you.  And so it goes on, around the circle.  Two gifts in particular were highly sought after and changed hands time and time again, with the players getting rather heated.  Finally to bring things to a conclusion, a rule change was decreed.  In each case, the person who rolled the highest number collected the gift in contention, while  the other contender chose one of the remaining unopened gifts.  Who would have imagined our Christmas game would almost erupt into WW3?  And just in case you are wondering, the highly prized gifts which almost led to a meltdown were:  a set of four tartan coffee mugs, and a tin man bottle holder complete with a bottle of wine!