Today was a wonderful Christmas.  It was definitely one I will look back on with great fondness.  First, we got about 3″ of snow last night, which was magical for both Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.

My parents, brother & his wife & mother-in-law came over to join us.  It was the perfect amount of people and was very relaxed.  I did get a little carried away with my super simple Christmas table I talked about a couple of days ago.  I decided to make a fruit topiary centerpiece and add some name cards.

The topiary looks fancy, but it was really simple to make.  I’ll actually be making a tutorial for HGTV.com for next year.

 I was a little in love with photographing it.

The name tags were craft card stock punched out with a decorative circle cutter.  I wrote on them with chalk pencils, which are thinner than regular chalk, so they’re easier to write with.

 I used the bird holders (from the Lucketts Design House last year) for the adults…

…and some zinc tags (with a pinwheel magnet made by Lisa Leonard) for the kids.  They also had their own special cups…

Some folks were asking for a full shot of the table and here it is…

…and with the food…

We’ve always had a Christmas brunch instead of a turkey dinner.  The rest of the family had tenderloin and flank steak and I have a veggie quiche.  We all had hash brown potatoes, rolls, roasted asparagus, cheese grits and my great-grandmother Rosa’s fruit salad.  It was the kind of meal I wish I could eat with a bottomless stomach.

(And the love affair with the fruit topiary continues.)

I used rolled out pumpernickel bread for the crust of the quiche.  I’m going to try it with white bread next time, so I can roll it out a bit thinner.   (I just wanted everyone to know that was pumpernickel and not burnt pie crust!)

 I loved using my heirloom silver, including this gorgeous pitcher that has my grandmother’s initials engraved on the bottom.

Of course we opened presents.  I wrapped most of them in run-of-the-mill grocery store paper, but I did wrap a few for the adults in some French paper, jute twine and velvet ribbon.  I used chalk pencil and a fine Sharpie for the tags.

(My gorgeous sister-in-law posing with her gift.)

And the boys had a blast.  They are at a very fun age for Christmas.

Yep, I allowed rollerblading in the kitchen.

I got a lot of gift cards to shop for clothes (woo-hoo!), but my favorite gifts were my Redskins sweatshirt (I’m a HUGE fan)…

…and these beautiful boots my husband bought for me.

I’m not a “shoe girl”, but I saw these at LL Bean when we went on vacation in Maine and I was in love.  I went on-and-on about how much I loved these boots.  My sweet husband remembered and bought them for me.  Perfect size and everything.  I wore jammies all day, but I couldn’t resist tromping around in them for a while.

After cleaning up all of the open boxes, wrappings, twist ties used to hold toys in the package, half-eaten cookies and mini marshmallows (thanks, Aunt Susan for the marshmallow guns), we are ready to crash and just bask in the glow of the tree lights and memories of a wonderful Christmas.  We are so blessed beyond measure and are so thankful for all that we have.

I know that Christmas isn’t a happy day for some.  It’s a reminder of hurt, loneliness, brokenness and pain.  It can be a time when loss is felt more acutely than the rest of the year.  For those, I heard a quote today that I thought was so beautiful and encouraging…

“Take the very hardest thing in your life – the place of difficulty, outward or inward, and expect God to triumph gloriously in that very spot.  Just there He can bring your soul into blossom.”

 – Lilias Trotter

Merry Christmas to all.