Ellipsis: Tipsy At The Party

Monday, December 03, 2018

Tipsy At The Party

La Nebbia Winery

Half Moon Bay, California

"What I don't like about office Christmas parties

is looking for a job the next day."

~Phyllis Diller

Oh yes, Christmas parties... I HATE THEM! I always have. Family Christmas parties. Work Christmas parties. Church Christmas parties... I HATE THEM ALL! It seems during Christmas time there is a certain way we are all expected to behave, and if I'm not feeling it, so what? I/We are expected to put on a joyous face, and show up, and be jolly! Now don't get me wrong, I don't hate Christmas itself, but growing up, my family could best be described as, well, mostly unstable around the holidays! Parents fighting. Sister and brother missing in action, and when they were around it was just more of the same, only louder and with their unique spin of stuff being thrown at each other. Mom would get pissed at Dad, and throw the ham away, and instead make beans and biscuits for Christmas dinner. It wasn't much fun.

I like Christmas, but I like Halloween better, and always will! Now, to be fair, I am a grown up adult lady now, and Christmas, and actually the holidays in general, are what you make of them. Since Alan and I got married, we have had more than one Christmas adventure, and we love the fun we have had. Like the year, I think our fourth as a married couple, when we had two Christmas trees in one year, because one of our trees went completely brown, brittle and dangerous, five days before Christmas! Or the time when Alan and I decided to do a destination Christmas, and we drove to a fabulous little inn, located along the Central Coast of California.

We loaded up the car with a tiny artificial tree, all our packages, and hit the road, leaving behind our perplexed, fighting families. We just went. The drive was perfect, almost no one on the road. It was reasonably sunny in the morning, and just chilly enough at night to make hot chocolate taste magnificent. From our dinner reservation request form, we both chose, Ham for our entree, which came with scalloped potatoes, cinnamon apples, and creamed peas. Dessert would be the apple pie. It was all set, dinner would be served in the main dining-room of the hotel's restaurant at 8:30 pm.

We arrived at 8 pm, and were seated promptly. The waitress who seated us seemed nice, but not overly friendly, which was fine. She brought us our water, checked our reservation card, and left for the kitchen. Alan and I assumed we would be getting our meals a little early, but when the waitress left, she didn't return! AT ALL! In fact, all the wait staff who seated the 8:00 pm reservation guests, seemed to disappear, all at once!

Well, a half hour went by, then an hour went by, and not a single waitress or waiter had been seen! 10:30 pm went by, and then 10:45 rolled around and still no word on where everyone had gone! But there sat, 150 hungry, tired, grumpy, starving Christmas Eve hotel guests, who by now were bordering on insane, left wondering what the actual St. Nick was happening! Then it happened!

Not our waitress, but the waitress assigned to the table next to us, came out with one plate of lamb chops, for the gentleman who sat at the head of the table directly to our left! Trust me, the entire restaurant went silent, and every single eye in the place turned to that man, who looked like a small mouse, surrounded by cats. Big, mean, hissing cats. He didn't even attempt to touch his knife and fork! He just sat there, staring down at his lamb chops, and then around the room. Well, suddenly someone across the restaurant began to wail with laughter, and then most everybody else did too!

I don't know about the rest of the diners that night, but Alan and I hadn't eaten since 11 am, and we were both quite punchy, so we just laughed so deep and so hard, that we were dizzy. Now take what happened, and add tired to the fact that the wait staff had been most kind about keeping our glasses filled with whatever beverage had been originally ordered, and it was a recipe for getting drunk on Christmas Eve! Alan and I weren't drinking anything but sodas, but the rest of the restaurant seemed pretty well zonked.

It was all so surreal, like a weird, surprise Christmas party, sprung on us by fate, at a Christmas dinner, gone way wrong! Well, we never did get our meal that night, but we did have a good time laughing about the overall predicament. Nothing was open so we ended up heading for a 7/11 not far away, and we ate chips and candy bars, at midnight, and just enjoyed the hell out of the restaurant Christmas party we had just attended! The next morning, Alan and I opened our presents and then enjoyed a nice breakfast at an iHop down the road, opting to not press our luck at the hotel restaurant!

We both love that memory, very much! And while were had been starving the night before, and slept with rumbling tummies, it turned out to be, the one Christmas party that was worth going to! We had such a good time! I wouldn't want to relive it, but heavens knows, it was our kind of Christmas magic, and it's tough to know that a silly thing like that may never come along again. Christmas is okay as holiday's go, and it brings a different magic to everyone's life, I was just happy to go through it with Alan, and have that memory in our marriage!

Here's a piece of advice... don't go looking for Christmas magic, but don't close yourself off to it either! Just let it come to you. It will find you, no matter where you are, and keep in mind, it may not be some big grand experience that hits you over the head, it might just be being able to laugh, in a moment where laughter is desperately needed! Be willing to let the magic find you, and when it comes, hold onto the feeling, and let the memory be like a treasured ornament you hang on your Christmas tree!