On the Edge of Christmas

It's quiet at my house this early Christmas Eve morning. Just me and my cat Charlie are awake--she because she's a cat and this is her time of day, me because a sore throat woke me up and demanded hot tea. So here I am by the fire, catching up on Facebook, watching the morning creep in, and planning my day.

We've been in the Christmas spirit the past few days. Saturday was shopping day. This year we shopped for each other, something we haven't done in years. Nothing big--the goal was small gifts, and they all had to be wrapped. Usually we're so busy getting gifts for other people that we didn't buy for each other. We had so much already, we figured, and the budget could only stand so much. But this year there will be only the two of us Christmas morning--for the past 26 years our youngest son has been with us but he's in California now and the airfare home is way outrageous during the holidays.  So who would be here for us to watch open presents, which is my favorite Christmas morning activity? Just us. That meant getting something under the tree to unwrap!

Yesterday was company. We cleaned up the house, finally got the pine boughs hung outside (I cannot believe it took us so long to get this done--usually it's the first thing I do after Thanksgiving),

and I gathered a winter bouquet for the table. Then I fixed dinner--nothing fancy, just a big pot of venison chili, crudites and a chocolate cake. My hubby's twin sister and her husband were our guests and we had a really nice visit.

That cake--I tried something my sister Theresa did. Instead of frosting between the layers, I used my homemade berry preserves. My. Word. That was delicious, and looked and tasted like some special recipe. The cake was devil's food, and the frosting on top was cream cheese frosting. I left the sides of the cake plain. Simple and so elegant looking.

Today is another day of cooking--pies, maybe some cookies. The house will smell wonderful, the carols will be playing and if the weatherman is right we might see a few snow flurries this evening to dress up the little bits of snow left from last Friday's storm.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Have a very merry and bright day, my friends.


Copyright 2012 Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.