SUNDAYS WITH CELIA VOL 99
Hello and welcome to Sundays With Celia Vol 99! I’m delighted that you’ve joined me here today during this very busy time of year!
Our Home At Christmas
I thought I’d start by taking you on a little tour around our house, giving you a glimpse at some of my Christmas Decor. Of course the kitchen is the heart of the home. So I always try to add a bit of Christmas cheer to the place where I spend most of my time this time of year.
I have a number of urns around the house and change what I display in them seasonally. This year I picked up ivy wreaths at Trader Joes and decorated them with tea lights and a garland of miniature gold pears.
My Dining Room table is set, ready for our annual Christmas Prime Rib & Yorkshire Pudding feast.
We always place our Christmas Tree in the Bar.
It’s so nice to find a few minutes each evening to enjoy a cocktail with my husband before dinner. The other night he made me a delicious Mojito with mint that I harvested out of our snowy garden. The urn in the Bar is filled with Paper Whites, also from Trader Joe’s.
I was also able to salvage some Italian Parsley and Sage, likely the last I’ll harvest until Spring.
So, getting back in out of the cold, here’s a look at the mantel in our Bar, decorated with natural pheasant feathers and golden pears that I placed in old trophy cups I purchased in Estonia.
This year I added a couple of new ornaments on the tree, souvenirs from our trip to London last May. An ornament from Westminster Abbey…
another from Buckingham Palace…
and one from Big Ben…
We also visited France on the same trip where we climbed Mont St. Michele.
My daughter-in-law is a lover of Corgi dogs, so I purchased her an ornament at Windsor Castle that represents the Queen’s beloved Corgi dogs. It became a cute gift tie-on for one of her presents.
I’m a BIG fan of gift tie-ons. It’s like giving 2 gifts in 1, plus it makes the gifts so much prettier! My friend Michele over on Hello Lovely had a great gift suggestion that I took and ran with. She introduced me to the Queen of Crowns Sacred Hearts or “MILAGRO HEART”.
Milagro means “miracle” in Spanish. These religious folk charms can be hung on alters, around the necks of Santos dolls or on statues. The heart opens to reveal a space to place a prayer, a wish, notes of gratitude or of thanks. Also called an ex-voto, it can be used as a Christmas ornament, holiday decor, as a christening gift, or as in my case, a gift tie-on. I loaded up on them, getting one for each of my kids, as we are Spanish and it seemed quite meaningful. Get yours here.
Speaking of gifts, I’m almost finished with my wrapping. Three of our four sons aren’t able to come home for Christmas, so I got their gifts packed up and in the mail. I still have a few more gifts to wrap that will be going under the tree. If you’re still wrapping and need a little advice, have a look at these posts for some wrapping inspiration:
“Christmas Trees in a Jar” Place Cards/Party Favors
I hosted a small dinner party last weekend for our best friends. I decided to get crafty and make some place-card holders that would also serve as party favors. I hot glued Miniature Christmas Trees to the inside of Mason Jar Lids.
I then sprinkled in some artificial snow flakes, tied some Red Ticking Stripe Woven Ribbon around the bottom of the jars, added a wooden name tag and voila, I had dual purpose place-cards and party favors for my guests to take home.
An Intimate Christmas Dinner Party
Because there was just 6 of us, I set the table in my Great Room, adjacent to the kitchen, using my beautiful hand embroidered table cloth and napkins purchased in Spain.
I served Tenderloin of Pork stuffed with Broccoli Rabe along with Bavarian-Style Spaetzle. It was delicious and very festive.
Dessert was an equally festive layered Cranberry Panna Cotta. It was light and delicious.
A Fun & Edible Hostess Gift Idea
It is with a great deal of satisfaction and pride that I finished my latest renovation project in Big Bear Lake. This project was done for clients, a simply wonderful young couple and their 3 adorable kids. I will be dedicating many future blog posts to this home that we are calling, The Cabin on Catalina. Last weekend my clients invited Brad and I for dinner in their beautiful new kitchen.
I am very proud to have designed this space, where we got to enjoy a delicious dinner of homemade pizza.
I wanted to bring my clients a special hostess gift, one that I knew the kids would get a great kick out of as well. I had seen something similar done on a favorite blog, so I decided to make it my own. I whipped up a batch of homemade Peanut Brittle and poured it into a quarter sheet pan that I purchased for this purpose. I tied it all up with satin ribbon and added a small hammer and a note stating, “We love you to pieces.”.
As you can see by the grin on his adorable face…
this hostess gift was a hit, literally!
A Wacky and Wonderful New Book Series for Kids
As you know if you’re a regular around here, we spent Thanksgiving in DC at the home of our oldest son, and father of my two adored grandchildren. And, as you can imagine, I always bring them a few small gifts when I visit. This time I got to give them something really special, the first two books in a series called Jim Henson’s Franken-Sci High, written by our friend, Mark Young. We recently attended a book signing party at Mark’s home, where we picked up signed & personalized, 1st editions of the first 2 books in the series as gifts for our grandkids.
Mark, a 7-time Emmy Award Winner, posed for me in front of his awards, dressed appropriately as a Mad Scientist in honor of his books that celebrate aspiring young, and sometimes Mad Scientists. The books are designed to inspire children to wonder about things, themselves, their relationships, and to explore the wonders of the world.
As Carl Sagan said, “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”
The books are fictional but explore fascinating real-life themes such as:
- DID YOU KNOW: Wrinkled fingers are an evolutionary trait caused by our brains to enhance the grip of our fingers underwater?
- DID YOU KNOW: Penguins have an organ above their eye that removes salt from saltwater so it doesn’t get in their eyes?
- DID YOU KNOW: When awake, the human brain produces enough electricity to power a 40 watt lightbulb for 24 hours?
Written for 8 to 12 year olds, I bought book 2, MONSTERS AMONG US!, for my 6-year-old Granddaughter who is already reading like a 5th grader. We took it to her room for a bedtime story and she read it to me!
And while book 1, WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH NEWTON?, might be a bit over my Grandson’s head, he was completely captured by the illustrations, turning every page of the book to see each and every one of them.
Even I got a kick out of the books, and highly recommend them for the Mad Scientists in your family! The series will eventually encompass over 2 dozen books, with the first 3 available now. Get your copies by clicking here. They will make great last-minute Christmas gifts, with the ability to add to the collection over time. I’m going to give Book 3, THE ROBOT WHO KNEW TOO MUCH!, to the kids for Christmas.
Well, that does it for Sundays With Celia Vol 99. I hope you take time to enjoy the next few hectic days of preparation leading up to Christmas, and that you have a joyous celebration with the ones you love. Happy Holidays my friends!
So There You Have It: SUNDAYS WITH CELIA VOL 99
Thanks so much for dropping in!
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All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Unless otherwise noted, all photos are the original property of Celia Becker @ www.AfterOrangeCounty.com and may not be reproduced without specific permission. This blog post contains affiliate links. If you click on a link and make a purchase I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. It’s what helps to make this blog possible. Thanks very much for your support.
