Christmas Eve

What are you doing on Christmas Eve?
What did I do today?

Horseradish sauce for prime rib. DONE
Sweet/sour sauce with black cherries. DONE
Champagne-vinaigrette for salads. DONE
Marinate blueberries and dried cherries for salad. DONE.
Peel and seed two pomegranates. DONE
Chill champagne. DONE
Wash all stemware and water glasses. DONE
Find napkin rings and choose napkins. DONE
Mix martinis and chill. DONE
Set the table. STILL IN PROGRESS

This list and more and my only tasks are the salads and sauces. My dear hubby roasts the prime rib and makes his speical Yorkshire pudding. My sister brings a dish and friend Frankie makes dessert. How's that for planning?




For several weeks I have enjoyed the bold and vibrant patterns of the red and white cloth my sister Jan found and bequeathed to me. One bias border later, voila, our Holiday Table cloth. Don't you just love it?






After spending Christmas in Williamsburg some years back, the legacy of that holiday continues to grace our table. The large, spiked cone is centered on a tray with floral clay and then fresh holly and apples are fixed in place ready for in the center of the table. A few sprigs of fresh rosemary add texture and a light, fresh fragrance.







Getting the center piece centered and making room for the candles, glassware, napkins and setting the table for six.
Pulling out the selected wine glasses, water glasses, coffee cups and arranging the charger plates for the aperitif. This year the choice will be an espresso-vanilla vodka martini OR a pomegranate-vodka martini. Either is refreshing to the palate.
And we are almost done.


Still a few hours to go. After dinner I will toss the salads and make up six bowls. Adding a dry piece of toast to the top and then covering tightly with plastic wrap will keep them fresh until dinner time tomorrow afternoon. Just before serving I will dump the toast, top the salads with sugared pecans, a shaving of Valdeon, a smoked blue cheese and a few pomegranate seeds on top.

Tonight we celebrate with champagne and a Grand Mariner souffle. And read some poetry. I have been listening the Mannheim Steamroller's holiday album all afternoon. Maybe a dance or two? Then early to bed.

Tomorrow DH takes over the kitchen and I just watch. And then I have a surprise for my sister. Stay tuned.....bb

'Tis the Season

I love the view from my front door (left). Now that the holiday wreath is in place, it fits into the redness of the Japanese maple trees. We have five such beauties growing in the yard and they frame every window view from the front of the house.

The trellis (right) outlines our yard (before the steep fall off into the ravine), and is covered with vines. Opposite the maple trees, each side of the entry walk has vegetation lining the path. This time of the year the color is vivid and stupendous!
The holiday season is moving up fast. Each day I try to accomplish something more towards the ultimate display for this year. So far I have accomplished a new table cloth, made from a fabulous piece of printed cloth. This fabric a gift from my sister during her improvisation-auction buying days. The border of double-fold bias with mitred corners was not easy and took longer than I had scheduled. But look at the results! The next step will be to find the 'apple cone' in the store room. Purchased years ago in Williamsburg, Virginia, the spiked cone will be covered with red and green apples and fresh holly and placed on a round mirror at the center of the table. Then I will feel like we are ready to celebrate Christmas.
As for gifts, without children to buy for our gifts come all year long. For instance Dear Hubby just got a brand new leaf blower. Just kidding.

My gift is a Bose speaker for the iPod that we can take on the cruise to manage our own playlists of dance music. In fact, I can now take my iPod and dance music anywhere and organize a ballroom class. Something that was problematic before as not having a good sound system is definitely limiting for dancing. DH just received new mouthpieces (2) for his saxophone. I never new that playing improvisational jazz required a different mouthpiece.

Tomorrow, December 5th is the OLLI/New Horizons Band Holiday Concert at the Durham Academy Middle School. This is the BIG one. DH and the band has been practicing for months, adding new music and perfecting others so the concert will be the best ever. This is the sixth Holiday Concert since the band was formed with OLLI's sponsorship. The music, the players, the whole culture of music has changed OLLI in the best possible way.

We watch the rest of the country white with snow and freezing temperatures and thank our lucky stars that we moved south when we did. We may not have a white Christmas, but the holidays will be RED and joyous and bountiful. May yours be so too.
bb