Christmas in January… I love it!

As much as we tried, two of my friends just couldn’t get together with me to celebrate Christmas before the end of the year. All the better! With all my decorations packed away and the tree out the door, it was so nice to have yet another celebration! Three ladies with three significant others, eight children, all the responsibilities of momhood… but we finally got together a few days ago for a lovely dinner at a local Italian restaurant. And there were presents!

We all opened our gifts and were totally delighted! I brought my beautiful champagne gift basket home and took photos to share! And I did my best to put everything back very carefully, gathering the cellophane with the elegant silver wired ribbon, so I could take after and before pictures. Yes, after and before pictures.

What more could a girl want? Two bottles of very nice champagne, a magazine entitled “Champagne” (who knew?), a box of divine champagne-infused truffles, an exquisite hand-painted champagne flute, a velvety-black hand towel with glittery silver embroidered snowflakes, an ornament in the form of a miniature champagne bottle and an elegant crystal topped champagne stopper, all swathed in a sparkly black lame’ scarf and presented in a beautiful silver basket!

Thanks, ladies! What a perfectly appropriate gift!

Nighty-night, Santa…

Nighty-night, Santa… I will miss you… I really hate to put you to bed, but it’s time. You’ll be among friends… Mr. and Mrs. Snowman, the delicate strands of heavy old tinsel, my beloved crèche, the glass garland and the feather trees. I will lovingly wrap you in layers of soft tissue to keep you warm and cozy. I will awaken you in autumn, after the last few leaves haves fallen from the trees. You will be the first to emerge along with all the vintage boxes of worn glass ornaments, collections of Tavern candles, strands of lovely antique Noma lights, and the old felt stockings. Close your eyes… sweet dreams…

I always feel a bit in limbo after Christmas and New Year’s are over… it seems like we should be celebrating Spring! But barely into Winter two weeks, we have a long time to wait until March 20th, the official first day of Spring.

Maybe I can enjoy a beautiful chandelier to remind me of Spring.

Perhaps a bouquet of silk flowers in an iron urn will inspire me to start my garden on time – for once – or to visit the local nurseries as soon as the last frost has passed.

Then again, I think I shall take pleasure in the beauty of winter and wait for the next snowfall. I will admire the deer in our field grazing for sweet grass and watch as Canada Geese fly overhead on their way south. And I will continue to relish in the beauty and craftsmanship of this incredible bird’s nest which was presented to me after the last windstorm caused a large branch to fall from the top of our birch tree.

Best of everything to everyone in 2010!