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.

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.