We were discussing family gatherings (which as you can imagine are quite an event in our household) and one Christmas in particular came to mind.

It was 1993 and my sister’s boyfriend of the time was a little worse for wear, and getting progressively worse. Then all of a sudden he disappeared. One minute he was playing charades with the rest of us and the next he was gone. My sister quickly conducted a search, concerned that he may have come to some harm in his inebriated state. However, all she found was my brother uncouncious in the bathroom with a cooling cup of coffee draining onto his trousers (leaving a lovely stain…)

Finally she gave up, deciding that he must have staggered home and she returned to our party games.

It was only an hour later that we found him. A young boy knocked on our door and asked us if “that man on the grass belonged to us?”

And there, laying spread-eagled on the public green next to the house was my sister’s boyfriend.

Even worse, the local kids were playing football around him and using his prone body as a goalpost,

And no – they didn’t date for much longer after that.

 a photo by nozoomii on Flickr.