Christmas Party

On Sunday night, Rob and I hosted our annual Christmas dinner. Due to some last minute cancellations, we had a smaller group than usual–a mere twenty-six. Even so, this year was a wee bit stressful to prep for because I had agreed to work the early Cinnamon Bear cruise on Sunday. I managed to get a lot of things prepped the night before, but was still cooking right up until company arrived. Thank heavens for house guests, that’s all I have to say.

Well, no, I’ll rattle on a bit more. Jodi and Julie are visiting and arrived late Saturday night. I put them to work on some last minute details on Sunday. We were all wearing our LazyTown black fleece jackets and looked like some bizarre convention until we all changed to our holiday finery.

Jodi wore his tuxedo, with black shirt and black tie. Julie had a fantastic long skirt of black silk topped with a gorgeous black sweater. You should have seen me pulling lasagna out of the oven in my deep gold satin ball gown. It’s quite something. I need a fancy apron, one that will go with satin, for this time of year.

The party is always black tie optional, and every year I have a few more guests step up to the bar. This year I had five men in tuxedos, none of them my husband, and the rest were in suit and tie. I was very impressed. Several of the ladies, besides me, wore actual evening gowns and the ones who didn’t, still looked very stylish. I think we all enjoy playing dress up.

Lest I forget:

This year for the party favor I made small Christmas tree ornaments by sandwiching cuttings from vintage postcards between two small pieces of glass. The edges are finished with silver foil.

I think the last guests left around midnight, but I am not certain because we had three houseguests staying with us so the party wound down slowly.

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