Our Christmas tree was up on the 18th but didn't get decorated until the 23rd. No snow until the 28th. Christmas Day expanded between December 15 and Jan 2. Magical holidays, with time stretching out and simultaneously rushing by with the Solstice.
Food, drink, music, good cheer, and good wishes shared with family and friends. Celebrating the best of the season!
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Our BPYC Book Club Christmas dinner started festivities, with the little evergreens in the corner decorated with sailboats and candles flickering on the table. The BPYC Christmas potluck on the 18th had our uke band playing Christmas carols. Then it was back to the clubhouse on the 1st for the Commodore's Levee and to admire the daytime view of the snowy Bluffs.
At work, we held a 'Secret Santa'. People pulled colleagues' names to buy present, but with a twist. We were to choose something they would have enjoyed as a child, and the gifts would then be donated to Sick Kids Hospital. I ended up pulling a name of someone I didn't know very well, and over the week kept my eyes open to see what they might like. Everyone was a bit more attentive, I think. What fun when the presents were opened.... one or two people actually became their eight year old selves, wide-eyed.
Liz and Nicolette both have Open Houses the Saturday before Christmas. It's fun catching up with old friends and meeting friends of friends at their parties.
On the 21st, Wendy treated some of us to Dim Sum for lunch and that evening it was Ukelele Christmas caroling at the Stone Cottage.
I relied on my raclette for easy entertaining. Sitting down on the 20th, standing and milling around the table on Christmas Eve, and a vegetarian version on the 28th. For most of my guests it was a style of eating they hadn't tried before.
Amazing meals! Darcy prepared an incredible Boeuf Bourguignon but credited all the success to Julia Child. Therese pulled together a traditional Christmas turkey dinner that tasted like the best days of my childhood, while Brenda and Bill had us feasting on Prime Rib.
New Year's Eve our foodies stretched a meal from 6 pm to well past midnight, with a Chinese theme that included homemade spring rolls, lobster mushu, ribs, Hot Pot, Chow Mein, Lemon Chicken, Peking Duck.... and dessert the following morning!
Today I'm going to my mom's to celebrate Christmas and ring in the New Year, the last big party of the holiday. I think we will be banging pots and re-enacting the countdown into 2016, and why not?
Happy 2016!!!!!!!
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