Christmas Party at Sharon and Desi's

Sharon and Desi hosted their now annual Christmas party. This year, it was a real pleasure to finally meet Sharon's parents. We'd heard so much about them for so long! Mr. Downey was such a friendly fellow. He pulled out a large map of Ireland, and we instantly began talking about our pending trip to Ireland.

I had traced our route all the way to Antrim on the northern coast, when Mr. Downey nonchalantly mentions, "Oh, we better do something about that." As I glanced up, the northeastern Irish Sea was afire. We had placed the map too close to the candle, and it was now burning!

I swatted the fire out with my hands, but unfortunately not before leaving a char mark on Sharon's beautiful dining room table. Aw, Jeez, what a way to start the party. Sharon, seriously, let me know how much it costs to fix it. This will forever be remembered as the party where Sharon's dad and I tried to burn the house down.


Later on, we visited, and had this wonderful orange liqueur cake that Sharon's Mom made. Oh, my, god, it was good!

During a break in his non-stop scarfing of snacks, and much to the request of everybody, Eddie paused to play us "Angels We Have Heard on High" on the Yamaha piano. He played it perfectly from memory, and I'm still kicking myself that I didn't get a video!

The kids all kept themselves busy. Eddie and Gabi cuddled on the couch and watched SpongeBob. (Really, they are just too cute!) Luke and Maura, who were soul-mates for the night, tormented everybody else in the house. Maura would use her girlish charms to lure unsuspecting men (like myself, Desi, Phil, and Grandpa Duke) into an ambush, where Luke would be waiting with his marshmallow blaster. Really, Luke and Maura were quite the pair tonight! All the other kids just played the Wii.

Finally, after a couple glasses of a beautiful Macallan and one glass of Bushmills, it was time to go home again. But it was a lovely party.