It’s actually Tuesday but who cares. Grab some coffee – it’s a long post!!! I meant to do a blog post on our Christmas dinner but shockingly was very busy. Finally got the Christmas cards out! Im very lucky to have a talented photographer close by, if you live in Fairfield County, I highly recommend Katie Kinsley Photography.
I had originally planned on doing a Norman Rockwell-esque photo but got voted down sadly.
Got these gifts for clients ready and delivered at the very last minute. I wanted to find something local and I knew my friend Tammy makes delicious preserves on her Ward Family farm here in Wilton, so these ended up as HDS Design company gifts.
One of my very sweet clients ended up bringing me a gift – a beautiful glass Simon Pearce snowman ornament, I was so touched!
I hosted my 5th Christmas Coffee – a little get together with my girlfriends before Santa comes. It was a little hectic but nothing like guests coming over to get your house decorated and sorted out fast. I thought I had the best shoes but got outdone by a very fashionable friend of mine.
My oldest daughter Olivia is obsessed with tigers, cheetahs, wolves etc. I had bid on a tiger print on an online auction and couldnt get to Bridgeport where the auction house was to pick it up for weeks. Luckily the lady was very accommodating and allowed me to come in later. We surveyed the warehouse, talked business and family and she ended up telling me how she has 2 sons, one of whom has severe autism and will never function as an independent adult, her 55 year old husband was just diagnosed with IBM, a form of ALS, where your muscles atrophy, she struggled to understand why this was happening to her and what to do with her business and her life. I hugged her, that’s all I could do. There’s no upside to autism or ALS, it will never get better. So all I had was a hug. While I am not a religious person, I prayed in the car that my life wouldn’t change. Not to get too preachy here but how good we all have it…
I love how in the midst of this horrible personal tragedy, she had still decorated this vehicle outside her warehouse.
My daughters wanted to learn how to make Estonian potato salad and honestly, that was probably my favorite part of the holidays. Gary, my husband, always wonders which masochist dreamt up this crazy salad where all ingredients are chopped up into even small cubes. LOL. It has potato, boiled carrots, eggs, baloney, cucumbers, dill pickles and canned peas in a mayo-sour cream dressing. Some people add apples and/or onion.
We always celebrate on Christmas Eve and had some folks over who had no other plans. One of them dubbed our meal a Teutonic feast (Estonia was occupied by Germany a few times, so there’s some culinary overlap): pork roast with crackling, potatoes, sauerkraut, potato salad, blood sausages, headcheese etc.
Girls made placecards with little wishes written on the card for that individual. 🙂
Gary carved the pork with Sailor keeping a close watch on him.
It’s the last day of 2019, good bye and thank you! Thank you for my really amazing friends, the old and new, thank you for my clients that allow me to do what I love for living, my family and our puppy, thank you for the lessons learned and memories made in 2019. Happy New Year!
