Liz's Christmas pudding with John's flames

Woodpeckers and I were delighted to have been asked to join Liz and John for their Christmas dinner tonight, especially as I have been rather under the weather for some days. We arrived on time at 6pm for champagne and canapés with their party of friends and family including Sue, Andy, Simon and Joe.

A massive and delicious Christmas dinner followed with everything you might want including fitting drinks for each course. I couldn't get rid of my cold for the occasion but I did manage to enjoy myself.

Liz suddenly announced that I should get my camera out and I found John warming the alcohol in a special ladle over a large candle until it began to ignite at which point he poured it over the Christmas pudding. It burst into multi coloured flames and looked brilliant.

Minutes later we ate it with brandy butter and the special cappuccino Gelato ice cream Helena had brought with us. Wonderful. Crackers produced silly hats and jokes of properly varying quality, before strong coffee rounded the meal off. Thank you so much Liz and John, for such a perfect dinner and great conviviality.