The Black Cat

So New Year has come and gone. The murder mystery party at our place was most excellent, if I do say so myself; without exception the gang got into character superbly and we all had a great time. K did a fantastic job with the food too - gorgeous reindeeer steaks for the main. I can't claim that the sleuthing was too diligent, but that's not really what its all about ;-)

That's me over there on the right, getting right into character as Huges Le Grandbutte, Deputy Major of Casablanca. I'm accompanied by my glamorous wife (and one time star of the Parisian stage) Edith. You might take particular note of the slippers, a critical element of any mayoral dinner suit.

I've uploaded some photos, as has Linda. Enjoy the costumes!

We all toasted in the New Year with a first sampling of the rumtopf - mixed with champagne, naturally. Based on this initial experience plus a couple more samplings since, I've learned a few things:

1. Rum is quite strong
   
2. A strawberry can suck up a surprising amount of rum
3. Champagne may take the bite out of the rum but it doesn't really temper the impact to any great extent
4. Nectarines should be quartered, not halved
5. Rumtopf is very nice with ginger ale or ice cream (or possibly both, though we haven't tried that yet)

We've now (with the support of many friends, I must add!) consumed about 3/4 of the urn and are already starting to think about what we'll put in first when we restart it :-)

To close, here's a shot (courtesy of Linda) of her and Jelte enjoying a midnight tipple.