The Party's Over....

It's 10:30 as I type... everyone got here at 2:30, and the dinner party broke up around nine o'clock. I've got the kitchen back to normal (two dishwasher loads, with all those glasses and place settings), and the dining room has returned to its usual look, with the leaf taken out of the table.

Everything went very smoothly... food was delicious, and it got to the table hot. We took our time between the courses, and no one was too full after the main course. Serving the soup in the teacups was a perfect idea... just enough soup without being too much, which would have happened if I used bowls.

After dinner, we opened gifts, which gave us a breather inbetween the meal and dessert. My husband had also printed out a Christmas trivia quiz, which everyone had fun with before we went from the dining room to the living room for the gifts. With the plum pudding, my husband always comes up with an innovative idea for the coins that are traditionally hidden in the baked pudding. This time, he took photos of all of us (that he had stored in his computer) and put Santa hats on our pictures....... he printed out the pictures, cut them into puzzle shapes, and young Miss C put the shapes together to find the scrambled clue which was "Look inside the Russian doll." That's where the gold coins were hidden... inside one of the little Russian nesting dolls that I had displayed underneath the aluminum Christmas tree. Everyone ooohed and aaahed over the gold coins, then popped open the Victorian Christmas "crackers" to find their gold crowns and riddles and the little prizes that are inside.

Nice Christmas for us all..... very leisurely.... we all took our time and just enjoyed the day, the company, the meal, and our holiday traditions. The table looked beautiful.... the food we all cooked was just perfect.... the day just couldn't have been better.