Last week during Get Cooking Week I spent some time going over one last time my menu for the annual family Christmas Eve. Dinner. I made a few changes to the menu. Instead of doing ribs I've decided to do a roast. I made roast beef last month for Sunday dinner with carrots and onions and it was so good. Last year I bought Bruce Lee wings from Cross Street Market that my family truly loved. Many of my family members had never heard of these wings. I was recently asked by some folks if I would be serving them again this year so I've added them to the menu. That's about all I did for that week.
And now for the moment I've been waiting for. (Drum roll)
DECORATE!
I am on vacation this week so I started setting up my Christmas decor. Over the weekend I cleaned my place and put away all of my fall decorations. I normally wait to decorate Friday after Thanksgiving but since I will be going elsewhere I decided to take them down.
I started with the balcony. I hung up my multicolor icicle lights and wrapped the bannister with garland and lights. I made a new garland for the bannister using two types of pine garland, pinecone garland and berry garland. Then I wrapped them with multi color lights. I originally planned to use the garland around my front door but thought it would look better on the balcony - and it does. I even set up a 3 ft tree in a corner and hung up my new huge wreath I made at the end of last season. Now the only thing I have to do out there is hang my grapevine wreath on the wall (Which I forgot to do yesterday) and replace the tablecloth on the patio table. A large artificial poinsettia will be the centerpiece for the table.
Today I decorated the diningroom. I decorated the table with a white damask table cloth then draped a red damask tablerunner on top. Next I sat out my red charger plates and topped them off with red glass dinner and salad plates. At each setting I put out my red wine glasses and holly pattern water glasses. Since I broke my centerpiece I took a hurricane vase and wrapped a berry garland around the base. Then I have 4 beaded cone-shape trees cornering out the centerpiece. At either end of he centerpiece I have tree topper Santas - one dressed in the traditional red and one dressed in white. That's all I've done to the table so far. I still have to pin my miniature wreaths to the backs of the dining chairs. Plus I still have to finish setting the table and put a candle in the hurricane vase. I wrapped garland around the chandelier and switched out the cream shades for holiday shades. I took a small table from the livingroom and placed it in the corner where my curio used to be (got rid of it) and placed a 3 ft tree on it. I have lights, ribbons and red glass ornaments on it but want to add some novelty ornaments like Santa. I think I may have some in one of the other totes. I found some really cute tree skirts in Dollar Tree last year for a final touch. The skirt is perfect for table-top trees.
And finally today I set up my Christmas village. Since I gave away my curio, I decided to set the village in the hall but decided today to display them on the wall shelf that separates the diningroom and kitchen. First I lined the shelves with batting then I added the houses, trees and people. It turned out really nice. Then behind the scenes I place a couple of small candle holders and placed tealight candles in them. The lighting from the tealights should give the village a very nice glow.
Now I'm plum tuckered out. I have called it a day and have started clearing up. I feel good. So glad I took the week off. I have more time to get things the way I want with no rush to be finished by December 1st. I'm not sure which area I will work on tomorrow.
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