Boxing Day Greetings

The good china, silver and crystal are put away. The damask tablecloth and napkins are in a puddle on the floor, waiting to be dropped off at the cleaners. The fridge is full of left-overs. I’m sure I’ve gained ten pounds in December. The old mister is off golfing, which leaves me home alone to slog through 200 pages of copyedited manuscript–which have to be sent off to New York by this evening in order to make my deadline for THE FIXER UPPER. But it was a very, very wonderful Christmas. All my chicks were home to roost for Christmas, and they even went to the children’s mass with us on Christmas Eve. It’s always such a sweet service, with the little ones re-enacting the Christmas story. The whole family converged for Christmas dinner yesterday, and we gorged ourselves on standing rib roast, the old mister’s famous Christmas ducks, and all the trimmings. Afterwards, the younger set had a blast playing with my son-in-law’s new Wii Rockband game, and we nearly laughed ourselves sick watching them. So, back to work for me this morning, but first I thought I’d share some pix of our holiday decorating. After nearly killing myself decorating for our neighborhood tour of homes last year, I didn’t even put out half of my vintage Christmas collectibles this year, although it still looks like a lot. Old bottlebrush trees mixed in with my blue and white transferware on the Welsh cupboard in the dining room, gold and silver glass grape clusters mixed in with the mantel greenery, my goofy snowmen gathered in the antique secretary, and the old dime-store Christmas boxes on the sunroom table were among the collections that did get put out this year. I hope your holiday was just as blessed and filled with family, friends, love and laughter!