Christmas Luncheon

 I had my annual Christmas luncheon this week. I had to seat people for lunch in two rooms, as usual, the only time I wish I had a bigger house, or at least a bigger dining room. So we had 8 in the dining room and eight in the kitchen. I am fortunate to have a lot of Christmas dishes, so both tables looked festive.

I make party favors each year for my guests to take home and this year they were handpainted bookmarks.

I have a very nice punch to make that pretty top and a variety of red ribbons from my stash. I used a cute Penny Black stamp in black and water colored them in. I painted the branch and glued tiny little red rhinstones for the berries and some glttter on the hat trims. I usually run my bookmarks thru the laminator, but it did not like the rhinestones and left an unattractive gap around them. So, no laminating. But I made them on heavy watercolor paper and they were strudy enough.

I placed one on every napkin.

I also make a special cocktail each year in addition to wine. This year it was Pepperment-tinis. I rimmed the glasses with crushed candycanes and some with flaked coconut. If you rim the glasses the night before by dipping lightly in light Caro syrup and the crushed candy it sets like cement and never comes off when drinking. The drinks were a combo of vodka, pepperment schnapps and half & half and a few drops of red food coloring. Everyone thought they were delish. I also had sparkling soda for teetotalers. I forgot to take pictures of the drink, They were pink.

Look at these very cute and appropriate cocktail napkins I found on Amazon.

About half of us in this picture. That's me in the middle with the Christmas apron. We thought it was amusing that everyone wore either red or black or both.

Here you can see my pink Candycane martinis with Marilynn, Maxine and Jeannie.

It seems like Christmas came very fast this year, but I am almost ready. I baked two batches of Biscotti today, the only cookies I make anymore. Pistachio-dried cherry (my son's favorite) and cinnamon sugar-pecan. Now if I can only keep from eating them!

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas or any other holiday you celebrate. Let's hope that 2026 is better than 2025.

I am linking with Off the Wall Friday.

Santa is here!

 Anyone who knows me well knows my facination with Santas and my big 7 1/2 foot Christmas tree covered with Santa ornaments, mostly glass. Even tho it is quite full, there is always room for one more. But this year there are four more that I will share with you.

This first one was gifted to me by Kate, a member of my FiberWorks group, at a meeting at my house yesterday. It is amazing and has so much detail. The book he is reading is a map of the world. There is Beard Shampoo and several books on the floor. So cute!

My very thoughtful niece, Nancy, sent me this very fancy retro sewing machine. Again, so much detail. It is hanging on my tree and maybe the Santas will learn to sew and help out Mrs. Santa.

And here is Mrs. Santa mending Santa's coat. I bought her online. Most of the very good glass ornaments are made in Poland or Germany. This one is made in China and does not have the detail of the European ones, but she still pretty cute.

This slender skiing Santa (I guess he doesn't eat a lot of cookies) was purchased at my favorite garden Center, Shakspeare's Garden, that turns into a Winter Wonderland for the holidays. They display a huge amount of decorated trees, each with a different theme and all are splendid. It gets better every year.

Every year it gets a little harder to do this at my advanced age, but with a little help from a strong young man who assembles the tree for me to decorate and carries the heavy tubs of Christmas decor up from the basement. I do love the results and will keep it up as long as I can.

I am linking up with Off the Wall Friday.