Christmas 2015

Happy New Year! 2015 is here already. It sure did come along fast!

We had an amazing holiday with family. Twenty-nine of us were gathered here at the ranch for 5 days. No, my house isn’t a mansion but when you have people willing to be stuck into every nook and cranny, it works. Russell and I spent our time in the laundry room and I had a sister and her husband stay in our new pantry. Headspace at night for them was a little low (they were partially under the bottom shelves) but they had a little heater in there along with a small lamp and it actually looked pretty cozy in there.

The festivities started on the evening of Christmas Eve. We had a soup supper with cheese, crackers, bread and salad.

For my backdrop, I took a large piece of cardboard and covered it with wrapping paper, strung some lights up, and placed some pine branches around on the table.

The ironic thing was… my entire side of the family was there….

…except for 2 of my sons.

Zachary was in the Philippines on a mission trip and my other son had been in Canada doing some commercial ice fishing and stayed over to attend a funeral.

Things certainly change as the children get older and spread their wings.

But my daughter-in-law and my granddaughter, Shalom were here and that was really nice.

Christmas morning’s breakfast was simple fare. I like to keep it that way since it’s going to be a busy day with a big mid afternoon feast. Instead of always serving off the kitchen counter or table, I like to mix up where I serve things.

I have a little table that was handed down from Russell’s grandmother to us and I squeeze everything on there. Our morning spread was from 8:30 – 10:00 and everyone ate at their leisure when they wanted.

Serenity gave me the little chalkboard for Christmas from Hobby Lobby. I just love it!

The family cookbook arrived that I put together and for the 5 days that everyone was here, different ones made some of the recipes they had shared in the book. So for our Christmas breakfast we had two different muffins from the book as well as some delicious granola.

My parents had 3 great-grandchildren born this year so this was the first Christmas for all of them.

My Christmas centerpieces were very simple. Glass containers partially filled with cranberries and sprigs of rosemary. I had 11 of these and set them on a burlap runner, interspersed with small candles down the table. The containers were a little short once the food was placed on the table, so next time I would plan for them to be set on something so they would stand up a little higher.

The place cards were a lot of fun. We strung 3 cranberries together using dental floss (Martha Stewart tip),used a sprig of rosemary, and tied the name card on with a little golden bow.

It was a lovely day. Games, singing and testimonies of God’s faithfulness and care were part of it.

So thankful for family.

One other Christmas post to come this week. 🙂