CHRISTMAS CHEZ NOUS

Sam and me with our precious grandkids

Hello all,

On the lead up to Christmas, apart from all the cleaning, food preparation and Christmas decorations, I made a number of arrangements with a Christmas theme. In fact, I probably went a bit overboard.

The arrangement, below, is quite big with the 'martini glass' measuring 70 cms in height. After removing superfluous branches and pine needles, the branch was interesting enough on its own that it did not need any other materials to complete the arrangement. It was placed on the large dining room table, where, because of its height, it did not obstruct the guests' view of each other.

The next arrangement, which was placed on the informal dining table was, also, quite tall. The lovely glass vase was a gift from my cousin, Steve and his wife, Nieves, who had the foresight to drop it off to me on Christmas eve, giving me time to make a quick arrangement for the day.

The Kashmir cypress was cut from a tree belonging to the neighbour of my student, Wendy. I love the look of its pendulous branches, plus it is much easier to use than pine.

The next arrangement was on the coffee table in the family room. Like a child with a new toy, I wanted to use my recently acquired, black container. The traditional Christmas colours of red, white and green did no work with the black, so, I opted for white and silver with a hint of green.

I reworked the next arrangement, which was, originally, one of my demonstration pieces for the Sogetsu workshop  we had recently.  I had crocheted and starched the hanging bell about 35 years ago together with dozens more Christmas tree decorations.

Original - Intertwining plant 
materials

Wall arrangement

The floor arrangement, below, sits under the curve of the staircase and is the first thing guests see when they enter the home.

 The next arrangement was a gift to my favourite cousin, Steve and his lovely wife, Nieves. I can say this here, safely, because my other cousins don't read my blog.

Christmas lunch for 38 people was a resounding success, judging by the feedback we got and our own observations. The main feature of the feast was the lamb on the spit. My brother in law, Peter together with Steve, a retired butcher, took charge of selecting, buying and preparing the lamb. It's quite an involved process and the boys did an excellent job. There was a second spit with rolled beef because the lamb would not have been enough for so many people. We, also, had two tables full of savoury dishes and one full of desserts, most of them contributions of the guests. The younger members of the family took charge of clearing and washing up, giving us 'oldies' a break.

The weather had threatened to be a big problem, with all kinds of extremes forecast. Thankfully, it was just rain we had to cope with and, for that, the boys had erected a marquee type of cover over the lamb. The only disappointment was  that the traditional cricket game that is played on the lawn had to be abandoned.

The boys at work on the lamb - what's left of it!

Someone had produced an inflatable Santa costume and my grandson, Xavier, was raring to get into it and parade around, much to everyone's delight.

Bye for now,

Emily