Recap of the Christmas Soiree and my 400th post!

Last night I held my 3rd annual Christmas Soiree.  Luminarias once again lined

the walkway. I got the idea from Martha Stewart's blog.

I ordered all of the food from Zuzu's Cafe in Wakefield and I have to say everything was perfect! They delivered my food at exactly the time I asked them to. Everyone loved the appetizers and sandwiches.

We had caprese bites with balsamic dressing and mini phyllo cups filled with salmon salad with mango salsa, buffalo chicken salad and one with spinach and feta.

The caprese bites were delicous, Tomato, mozzarella, and basil on a skewer, yum!

I ordered two small baked bries, one with fig jam and one with cranberry orange relish. They were complemented with crackers and berries.

The finger sandwiches were also delicious. There were three kinds: roasted vegetables with goat cheese, roast beef with cheddar and horseradish,and chicken salad with cranberries and almonds.

My friend Diane works at Starbucks and I hired her to make lattes and espressos at the party. She had a lot of customers and some people wemt back for three or four drinks. I really enjoyed my gingerbread latte.  If you are a long time reader of my blog, you will know that Diane is Oscar's foster mother.  They had a wonderful reunion prior to the party. Diane's beau, Michael, also helped with the drinks.

Diane makes a perfect latte.

I used tea cups for the hot drinks.

My friends Roger and Deborah surprised me with a visit from Santa. Their son Nathan was making the rounds last night and he stopped by briefly.

And he posed for photos with the guests. I was totally surprised and when he walked in the door I wanted to say you've got the wrong house but I was polite. Then I thought is he going to rob me?

There was not much left of my White Christmas Punch by the time I took this photo.

Lots of conversation with friends. And the party lasted about 5 hours.

I ordered these little Marie Antoinette angels from Australia. They arrived in time for the party but I had thought they would have been perforated and I would just pop them out off the sheet.  No, they had to be cut out. My sister cut all 16 of them out for me the night before the party.

This cake was the showstopper. Midnight Velvet cake made by my friend Mary. She also made

snowdrop cookies and shortbread and also gingerbread cookies and red velevet cupcakes.

Paul enjoyed many espressos.

I took a few shots the night before the party. My tabletop living room tree. I don't put up a large tree as Percy would climb it and destroy it.

I used some twinkle lights to illuminate the bird cage and later I added a flameless candle.

Percy loves to watch the "fire" in the fireplace.

Here's another shot of the teenage Santa Claus.  I think there's a seasonal career in the making!

Today, we were all exhausted and we lazed around a bit. The kitties loved my new Rachel Ashwell comforter.

The two boys looked so cute, I just had to take another photo of them.

As I mentioned in the title, this is my 400th post. Wow, it's amazing that I found 400 things to write about!

Hopefully, there will be many more.

I am linking to The Inspired Room's Christmas House Tour blog party.  Click here to see more posts.

Prepping for the Christmas Soiree

My annual Christmas Soiree is this Saturday.  As usual, I feel  like I am behind the eight ball. I barely have the condo decorated. I need to clean and shop for food.

If we don't have rain I will put out the luninarias again. They always make a statement at the entrance.

Hopefully, the TV will be wall mounted over the fireplace by Friday. I have a friend of a friend coming to do that on Thursday.  He will also hang the new chandelier in my dining room.

I still do not have curtains on the windows so the living room will probably look like this. Actually I have a new tree. Last year's tabletop tree had to be tossed, the lights went out on it. So a new small tree for the living room.  Also the lit garland has half of it's lights out so I think I will either put up some real greenery and a string of lights or scour my storage space in the basement to see if I have another prelit garland..

There will be another show stopper cake. Midnight Velvet, yum!  This is the cake from Soiree #1. No one would cut the cake because it was too pretty. Finally my sister cut the chimney off and finally the guests began to eat it.

Last year for Christmas Soiree #2, I served this cake. A little less impressive so the guests ate it.

I may go back to the cake from Soiree #1. It really is impressive.  We will also have red velvet cupcakes and assorted cookies.

ZuZu's Cafe is doing the appetizers and sandwiches for me.  I can't wait to try the brioche sandwiches and mini phyllo cups.

And I am having a barista at the party.  Yup, my friend (and Oscar's foster mom) is going to be serving gingerbread lattes and peppermint mochas. 

So there's lots to do before Saturday I'd better get started..

The second annual Christmas Soiree

I had my second annual Christmas Soiree on Saturday night. Just like last year, my friend Don and I lit luminarias to line the walkway. You couldn't miss the house with all that candlelight. I was a little concerned as the forecast was for a blustery night but it worked out just fine.

We placed kitty litter in cream colored paper bags then we lit white votives in glass cups and nestled them into the kitty litter. The luminarias lasted from 6:00 to midnight.



I wanted to do something different this year so I decided to have carolers sing for a half hour at the beginning of the party. My sister's group, Katfish 4 agreed to sing. They have a "real" gig next week in Andover.



I told them I wanted carolers in Victorian dress. They were nice enough to accomodate me. They sounded great and they played a variety of instruments too. The mandolin, guitar, and penny whistle to name a few.



The early party goers got a chance to hear the concert.



Two women at the right of the photo are like second monthers to me. Clara on the far right is the woman who has my sister and I over for Thanksgiving dinner. Ellie, second from the right, is the woman who invites us for Christmas dinner. My dad goes to have dinner with my mom at the nursing home for the holidays. The woman on the far left is my very good friend Debbi and in case you didn't notice Debbi is Ellie's daughter.




My friend Mary, Clara's daughter, made all the desserts for the party. Mary also made these marshallows in snowflake shapes. I saw the snowflake recipe in an old Martha Stewart magazine and I asked Mary if she could make them for my party. We had them last year and they were a big hit so I wanted them for this year's party too.




Last year Mary made her famous Midnight Velvet cake for the party. She made it in the shape of Hansel and Gretel's cottage. It was so beautiful, no one wanted me to ruin it by cutting it. So this year I thought a tudor style house might be a little bit less of a wow factor and perhaps my guests would actually eat the cake this year.

It still had a wow factor with the dusting of powdered sugar accenting all the nooks and crannies of the cake but the guests actually ate the cake this year. It smelled as good as it tasted.



The fireplace was turned on for the evening. It gave off a lovely glow and the room had the cozy look I was hoping for. I had hoped to have the TV wall mounted before the party so I could decorate the mantel but time ran short. I ended up just throwing lighted garland and the cats' Christmas stockings on it.




Ok, this tree is definitely not my finest work but I had issues this year. I was worried that Percy, my kitten, would knock the ornaments off the tree. So I used my old prelit tabletop tree and I got the Happy Holidays banner from Pottery Barn. It served my needs.

As for the kitties, Percy climbed right up the middle of the tree within 5 minutes of me putting it on the table. I wished I had my camera with me at the time. He actually got stuck in the tree. He stood on his hind legs and he draped his front paws over one of the branches. I am sure I looked hilarious trying to first coax him then drag him out of the tree. See why I did not add ornaments this year?

Then yesterday, Oscar, my middle kitty, jumped on the table and laid under the tree. He got his claw caught in the lace tree skirt and proceeded to tug on the skirt. I had just entered the room and tried to get to him before he toppled the tree. I still can't believe what happened next. Oscar gave the tree skirt a good tug and both he and the tree skirt landed on the floor and the tree did not fall! I think Oscar must have been a magician in one of his previous nine lives!



Here's a wider view of the living room.



This shot was taken this morning. Molly blends in with the tree and Santa. She is happy it is quiet and she can have the run of the condo again.

I hope to have more photos of the evening soon. I was too busy to take photos last night.

This post is part of the Christmas with Victoria party. Click on the badge on my sidebar to see other partipant's posts.