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..

Home for the Holidays

Every year in the City of Melrose, Massachusetts, there is a downtown celebration called Home for the Holidays.  The businesses in several sections of the city open their doors for some holiday cheer.

Each business decides what they will offer whether it is discounts on merchandise, free gifts, or food and drink.  They usually cater to the kids so there are lots of activities for children like cookie decorating and story telling.

Carolers stroll the downtown streets and add some Victorian flair to this City noted for it's Victorian homes.

This window at Breads 'N Bits of Ireland reminds me of an old fashioned display.

Lots of smiles today.  The weather was perfect.,  Not cold but just chilly enough to make it feel like Christmas time.

City Hall looked elegant as always.

My bank offered the children an ornament making activity.  We also had cookies and Elaine's famous White Christmas Punch.

Reindeer rides at Cedar Park were a big hit.

Bohemian Coffeehouse had a raffle for a basket of baked goods.

Turner's Seafood sold cups and pints of clam chowder.  I can attest it is delicious!

Santa arrived at the Cedar Park train station.

Coffee Tea & Me had lots of goodies to be enjoyed.

There were trolleys to transport the attendees from one neighborhood to another. I am so thankful the weather cooperated .  One year it was bitter cold with a wind chill that made it even worse and no one rode the trolleys. Everyone drove their children to the events that year.

But today was perfect in every way. Thanks to the Melrose Chamber for pulling it all together.  It was a great success!

Christmas Bucket List

Are there things you simply must do for the holidays? Like visit a certain place or eat a certain food? Well here are my holiday must haves or my Christmas bucket list.

I like to see a live performance at the holidays. The Boston Pops, the Nutcracker Ballet, The Christmas Revels, it's always great to take in a Christmas show. This year I am hoping to see the Nutcracker at the local theatre.  It's a musical. Should be interesting.

Next weekend, I will attend the Nutcracker Tea.  This will be my second year attending the event.

My sister and I usually meet friends for dinner at the Bedford Village Inn in Bedford, NH.  The inn is stunning. And the week after Christmas is the best time to visit.  It is still decorated for Christmas but the atmosphere is more relaxed. We look forward to this special dinner.

I enjoy shopping in the small shops in surrounding towns such as Concord, Lexington, Winchester, and Melrose. I've already been to Nesting on Main.  They do such an amazing job with their displays. If I have time I like to go to Boston and browse around Beacon Hill and Newbury Street.  The window shopping is great!

I also take in church fairs and antique fairs. I find the best stuff there. In fact, I will show you some of my finds in another post.

A must do on my list is to visit Burdick's in Harvard Square.  Their hot chocolate is too die for! The cafe is decorated tastefully for the holidays. After hot chocolate, I have the energy to brave the crowds and do some serious shopping.  There is always lots to see in Harvard Square.

Here's a view of the twig chandelier in Burdick's. I had hoped to duplicate this for my Christmas Soiree but time is running short and there is still so much to do!

There you have it, my Christmas Bucket list. Do you have one? What's on your list?

Local shopping on Black Friday

I almost never go shopping on Black Friday but after hearing that Nesting on Main closes the week
of Thanksgiving to decorate for Christmas, well I couldn't resist.

My sister and I made a plan. A few hours of shopping in the morning in Concord and then lunch in Melrose at Turner's Seafood.  Not too exhausting and hopefully by shopping locally we would avoid the Black Friday crowds.

I am proud to say I try to do most of my Christmas shopping at smaller businesses. Usually I like the selection of items at local gift shops, flea markets, antique stores and craft fairs and the gifts are more unique.  Plus the people at the mall, both the clerks and the shoppers drive me crazy!

 So Nesting on Main did not disappoint.  The above photos are from today. It was crowded and the space was small so I took just a few photos.

All of the white and silver decorations were so lovely I have decided to use this color scheme for my own holiday decorating. I plan to use lots of silver and crystal pieces to set the holiday mood.

 They create such beautiful displays at Nesting.  Everywhere you turn there is an interesting vignette to view. Talk about eye candy!

A mix of glitter and nature. So stunning. Where is my glitter glue anyway? My sister was inspired too. She will be able to recreate some of the items she saw today. 

I have some silver leaves like this at home. I shall try my hand at creating a winter wonderland.

Let's hope the kitties aren't too interested in it.

More shots of Nesting.  A silvery wreath has that nice frosty look for winter.

These would be cute on a tree or hanging from some garland. I am big on hanging ornaments from garland.  I love the look.

After visiting Nesting, we stopped in at Jack and Toba, a new shop in Concord. I discovered Jack and Toba on a trip to Bedford last April, now they've moved to Concord. I enjoy looking at the displays.

They have an interesting mix of old and new merchandise.  I am loving that black window at the bottom of this shot.

 We had fried clam rolls at Turner's in Melrose and did some browsing downtown. The city was so pretty with all the Christmas wreaths on the Victorian lightposts that lined Main Street. The weather was mild and perfect for walking around.

I said goodbye to my sister and I headed up to Brissonte in North Reading.  This little darling was waiting for his mom or dad to bring him home. He was so cute I couldn't resist taking his photo.

At Brissonte, I controlled myself and just picked up so small items. I got some small vintage strawberry crates.  I will probably use them to display some of my vintage ornaments or I may put some pine cones and greenery in them. Or I could line them with doilies or pretty napkins and put some cookies in them.  Anyway, they are very sweet.

As I was driving home, I noticed the sunset was absolutely gorgeous.  I just had to take a photo so I pulled off the road into a golf course parking lot and snapped this.  It's blurry because of the low light.I just loved all the various colors in the sky tonight, almost an Aurora Borealis effect.  And one of these days I do hope to see the Northern Lights. It's on my bucket list anyway.

So far, I am having a great Thanskgiving weekend.  Yesterday was fantastic. Great food, family, friends.  It was quiet yet perfect.  And I am off from work until Tuesday! My boss told me to relax and I plan to.

I forgot to mention the winner of my blog giveaway.  I am pleased to announce that Sherry at Edie Marie's Attic won the Holiday Bliss Magazine and the white lights. You should receive the package soon Sherry and thanks for reading and commenting on my blog.  I always enjoy what you have to say!