Christmas Eve Blues

Welcome to our home.  I invite you in to

share our Christmas Eve celebration. 

For those who have been following 

Purple Chocolat Home 

for a while, you know that our family 

is growing and that I love to have them 

all together in the living room for big

meals.  We lovingly call it the Great Hall.

We move the furniture out and set up our

big parties here.

Christmas Eve is a formal event, and so the tables

are formal.  Tonight we used one eight foot table

for the adults,

and one six foot with multiple heights,

for the children.  The first time we used the

short table with child sized Chiavari chairs,

the kids were so excited.  They love their own

table.

The white Chiavari chairs are great because

they stack so neatly in the basement.

The inspiration for our table this year comes

from my new salad/dessert plates by Noritake.

As soon as I saw them I was smitten.  They have a

raised effect on the ornaments.  They come with a silver

or gold rim.  I chose the silver.

I didn't realize until I received them, that they

also had pale aqua on them, notice the bow at

the bottom of the tree, so I decided to create

a stack with a sparkling gold charger and pale

aqua plates that I already had.

Gold flatware and aqua stemware were added to 

complete the placesetting.

I created floral centerpieces for both tables.

I love the use of fresh flowers on the tables.

It makes the tables extra special.

My flowers were all purchased from Costco.

The tables had white tablecloths with fur runners

going down the center.

You can see the Christmas tree tucked into

the corner of the living room.

I just love how the table turned out this year.'

I used these Willow Chair covers that I

already had.  They really add to the table to

make it special.

My aqua goblets with the twisted clear stems

were purchased in Cabo.

My favorite part of decorating for Christmas Eve

is creating a surprise and hearing everyone's

comments, so their wrapped pajamas

decorated the staircase.

There were lots of oohs and aahs for the staircase

and the tables.  Even my sons commented on

how beautiful the plates were - now that is something!

Before we begin, we always take everyone's picture.

With 23 of us, it is always a big undertaking, but

this year I heard more compliments than I usually do,

and that makes it worth it.

The menu has been the same for years,

King Crab, tenderloin, arugula salad,

and sourdough bread, along with

artichokes for appetizers and

sparkling cider.

Then comes the fun of pajamas!

Grandma requires photos before we

open a few gifts.  Most gifts are Christmas

morning, but we have some exciting gifts

Christmas Eve so they don't get lost in the gifts

of the morning.

And this year, we had a new special angel, only 

ten days old.  That was the best gift of all!

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas.

Thanks for taking time to visit our family here.

I will be posting this with

Tablescapes Thursday