CHRISTMAS IN AUGUST

Never mind the fact that the temps were hovering in the mid-90s here in Atlanta recently–the ladies of the Lazy Daisy book club in Alpharetta were celebrating a BLUE CHRISTMAS last week. And a good time was had by all. I met Kimberly and her cutest-ever-mom Karen on Daufuskie Island in July. They asked me to attend the fifth anniversary celebration of their book club–where they were reading BLUE CHRISTMAS, so how could I refuse?

Let me tell you, these ladies had their par-tay groove goin’ on! I knew we were in for a great evening as I approached Kimberly’s front door–which was swathed in blue tulle and twinkling white lights, which matched the row of snowy white Christmas trees leading up to the door. Did I mention that the all-blue tunes mentioned in BLUE CHRISTMAS were warbling from hidden speakers? I heard Bobby Vinton’s “Blue Velvet” as I walked up. At the front door Kimberly had set up a vignette right out of Weezie’s prize-winning shop window in the book–complete with an iron bed covered with a chenille spread, stuffed poodle, and vintage high school letter sweater. Beside the bed stood a table holding a silver-framed photo of Elvis, and a bottle of Coke with a straw.

The theme continued inside the house, with more aluminum trees than you could shake a candy cane at, blue fur stockings, and the dining table adorned with another aluminum tree trimmed with blue-iced Christmas cookies. Yum! Of course, Kimberly served Red Roosters from the recipe in the book, along with the corned beef dip also from the book, and that was just the starters. We also had fa-la-la flank steak, spinach salad with blueberries and blue cheese, and lots of other goodies. Oh–and don’t forget that sparkling punch fountain–which changed colors as it spewed a peach champagne punch she dubbed “hunch punch.” Our Kimberly loves to play games, so the ladies competed in a ’50s trivia challenge as well as a BLUE CHRISMAS trivia game. Later, while we sipped our adult beverages, I answered questions and visited with the Daisies. Of course, everybody got a door prize–a Lazy Daisy Blue Christmas t-shirt created specially by Kimberly.

I’m throwing it down to all you book club hostesses out there–top that! Or at least share the kinds of fun events your club has come up with. If you send me photos, I’ll try and post ’em. In fact, I’ll post pix of the daisies as soon as I get ’em.