Diner a Minuit

A few weeks ago, we did a Midnight Dinner, inspired by The Night Circus - one of the best books ever. We had everyone dress in black and white with something red - although I must admit that I used a lot of red. Everyone came dressed, although we had mime make-up waiting and it was disappointed to be unused.

We let people come in at about ten, take a Sour Monkey shot, light a candle and put it in the Wishing Tree. They received a badge each, created by my mother and Lizanne's mother. Afterwards, I let them go into the garage, where the party was going to be held. Our neighbours are a bit on the Boksburg side of life and we didn't want the woman yelling at her children, spoiling our evening. I let them, also, choose one of 9 playing cards, each with a separate number on. I had them in suspense, asking, ''Are you sure you're ready?'' and then let them in eventually, Jasper having to stand alone for 20 minutes.

The garage was decorated by Lizanne and Lara, my two not-so-blond bombshells, who stood on the table sticking streamers to the roof while I delegated. Afterwards, we found a formal way to set the table, and I had made little circus tents and wonderful black candles - which smelled of candy - to be the centrepiece. We used black tablecloths, white plates, black and white streamers and tied red ribbons around the chairs and the doorhandles.The straws were also decorated with assorted moustaches, clown noses and pouting lips.

Table-placements were usually very boring, because usually one would want to sit next to everyone. So at first, the playing cards they had to choose was the decision-maker on that one. Their place mats, which we had also drew a few days in advance, also had names on. These were the second placements. The third placement was the most fun, Each place had a bottle, tiny with a cork in, that had a picture on it. Each picture was a symbol for a specific person. They had to find their symbol, and then that was the last of the seating arrangements. Inside the bottle, there was another reference to the book, a.k.a. the tent that had been small but full of little bottles. When you opened it, you would be swept away by the scent inside and it would transport you to another place or memory. The best being, everyone experienced a smell differently. Mine had been labelled Rainy Day, and smelled of pancakes. Marthinus's smelled of vanilla and was labelled Ouma se Kombuis. Everyone loved it, and loved that it was personal, for example, Michiel's reminded him of his time in India.

Before dinner was served, Marthinus was forced to do a speech, a punishment for skipping on his church duties. The speech was one of the funniest things that Lara and I had ever composed, and we were proud as he even did all the moves that Lara had made go with the words - although he did them quite awkwardly.

We tried to find black and white foods to add to the mystery. As an apetizer, we had bought sushi from a local sushi bar where we had also held a surprise party for Cindy in the fifth grade.  Unfortunately, we couldn't find any black pasta for dinner (which we later learnt could only be pre-ordered at certain shops, much to all Marthinus's efforts' spite). So we ate white pasta, with any black, white or red - olives, tomatoes etc. We also decided that everyone had to fill their own plates, as we had some very picky guests - one vegetarian and two boys who didn't eat tomatoes. This worked out quite well. For dessert, we had home-made Oreo ice cream. We also baked a rainbow cake that was the grande finale, if one could call it that. We covered it in white cream, which created a great surprise when we cut out the first piece.

The night was memorable, and now we can start thinking of other ideas for a December Dinner!

-Odette