{"id":49800,"date":"2016-12-27T11:37:26","date_gmt":"2016-12-27T16:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/?p=49800"},"modified":"2017-01-11T21:26:16","modified_gmt":"2017-01-11T21:26:16","slug":"recap-christmas-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/2016\/12\/27\/recap-christmas-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"A recap on Christmas 2016……"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello friends! It’s so hard to believe and always bittersweet to realize that Christmas is over. That whole buildup and in 24 hours it’s all over and a thing of the past. Then we are left with the winter doldrums and in our case in NY, a long cold winter……. ugh!<\/p>\n

This Christmas was a particularly good one. I think I appreciated it so much more this year because I have been working full time (and then some) and having a few days to do nothing but relax, cook, drink wine, watch movies, reminiscence with my family…it was the best and I can say I truly enjoyed and savored every minute.<\/p>\n

Is it a lot of work? Yes, I think we all know the answer to that question, the marathon giftwrapping sessions, endless meals, making sure everyone is happy and well fed……but I would do it all again in a heartbeat if I could. What can I say? I really do love the holidays, despite the craziness and overload:)<\/p>\n

I had fun setting up the tables for various meals and thankfully was mindful to have my camera or iPhone nearby much of the time to snap quick pics here and there. So here is a recap of some of what I was able to capture, which I am grateful for as it will be fun one day to\u00a0 look back and think about Christmas 2016……<\/p>\n

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For breakfast I changed things up a bit and loved the touch of red for some early morning cheer. With older boys who enjoy the luxury of sleeping in, breakfast was done in a few shifts aka “seatings” But every breakfast started with some kind of fresh fruit, fresh juice and of course strong coffee!<\/p>\n

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I like adding small touches to make a table feel extra special, like adding this small wreath to the teapot pedestal….<\/p>\n

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And I made many yummy appetizers, for Christmas eve lunch we skipped a real lunch and feasted on tapas all afternoon since we were having a big dinner that night…..<\/p>\n

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I love making antipasta platters and my mint juleps are the perfect size for holding things like olives, breadsticks, mushrooms,etc……<\/p>\n

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I love this little Chinese rice bowls (mini) they are perfect for small bit size appetizers, in this case this was pasta and just enough to satisfy but not too much as to feel too full plus extra brownie points for the cuteness factor<\/p>\n

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And by late day this is what it looked liked, champagne, food, a roaring fire, a great movie…..ingredients for a perfect day-<\/p>\n

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And for some that means a late day siesta…..<\/p>\n

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For Christmas dinner since we were only 8 I decided to make it more intimate and cozy and set it up in the breakfast room. It was two fold, one is we never use this room anymore\u00a0 as my husband and I sit at the kitchen island\u00a0 and secondly we set up Christmas dinner buffet style (did a late lunch\/early dinner) and this room offers close proximity to the kitchen…..plus I really love this room and love any chance to use it.<\/p>\n

What it lacked in formality I made sure to make up for with the “pretty factor”. I brought out my Blue Mikado china and worked with fresh greens, sugar cones, topiaries and paper whites. I added fresh cuttings from outside on each silver charger for that extra special little something.It all came together beautifully and topped with lots of candles it really came out so pretty-<\/p>\n

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And then I whipped out my “big gun” camera, my Nikon and took a few more pictures, the clarity is hard to beat-<\/p>\n

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Such fun to think back on this fun and wonderful time at home with my family. I am sure like it was for me, many of you have special memories of this most wonderful time of the year. It’s important to savor these times as with the blink of an eye it’s all over and onto the next thing….<\/p>\n

I have taken away a few things to keep in mind for next year and though I have said it before 2017 is going to be a year of being AHEAD of schedule which means preparing for Christmas starting in Aug\/Sept and that includes planning a holiday party, Christmas cards and a bunch of other things that I would rather have under my belt by the time Dec rolls around.<\/p>\n

In fact I may even start some kind of “holiday bloggers challenge” with imposed deadlines that we can all work on together, are you game? Something to brainstorm about for next year but in the meantime thanks for stopping in, wishing you a wonderful rest of the week as the holidays march on, let’s keep the spirit going! Until next time…….<\/p>\n

PS The chinoiserie ornaments are 50% off and going fast. Thanks to a last minute order we ended up getting an unexpected shipment, great time to stock up for next year! Click here to see the entire collection on sale<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

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PPS Just started on Wednesday morning a after Christmas blowlout, click here to see all the goodies!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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Save<\/span><\/p>\n

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Hello friends! It’s so hard to believe and always bittersweet to realize that Christmas is over. That whole buildup and in 24 hours it’s all over and a thing of the past. Then we are left with the winter doldrums and in our case in NY, a long cold winter……. ugh! This Christmas was a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":421,"featured_media":50432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[1789,2427,1809,2446,1792,1413,1807,1791,1808],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49800"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/421"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49800"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50433,"href":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49800\/revisions\/50433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.enchantedhome.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}