Raven and Sparrow

Christmas wishes

The tree is trimmed and the presents are wrapped. Its Christmas Eve, my children are home and my cat is comfortable. I hope your holiday and the year ahead will be full of joy and love. 

Looking back with thanks

It is easy to take things, like one's own computer, for granted.  I've been using this desktop model made for me by my son Joel for three or four years. It has my files and my Adobe programs and my habits firmly entrenched. Lately it has been acting up...like not turning on when I ask it to, and turning itself on in the night ???? Mike took it apart and installed a new motherboard and now it is back. Yay. My camera takes pictures in the RAW format so I have been waiting for access to Photoshop and now, finally I have it. Here is my planned post about my Thanksgiving table. I know you have all been waiting breathlessly.

I don't have a lot of experience serving Thanksgiving dinner myself because we usually share it with my parents (and all of my siblings) at their house. This year Dad was not feeling up to it so we were on our own. 

Seven people were expected. I decided not to re-invent the wheel and got out the green tablecloth and wool scarf I used the last time I did Thanksgiving.

I added Mike's mother's Denby and her everyday simple stainless. The glassware is vintage Morgantown from the seventies. They are a wonderful green that is subtle without being dull. In fact, now that I think of it, all of these dishes, glasses and stainless are from the sixties and seventies. They always remind us of Mike's mother, so her presence was with us for our meal.

So far everything was the same as before, but the centerpiece is always different. I bought the three candles new and set them up with the pressed leaves I found in the giant bank ledgers Mike's cousin gave me years ago. Their colors were perfect. 

Tiny vases filled with red chrysanthemums and hypericum berries also had the right colors, but the glassy collection of vases and candle holders that held them needed to be disguised by greenery. Madrona leaves echoed the shapes of the pressed leaves underneath.

Last detail: little wooden bird and leaf shapes sewed onto buff colored ribbon. They add so much life to each setting.

I had better luck with the turkey this time although it still wasn't perfect. (Last time it was dry and tough, this time the white meat cooked well but the dark meat was underdone...sigh)

Still, it was a good dinner and a good time. I hope everyone thinking back to their Thanksgiving celebrations this year has happy memories of delicious food and loving faces at their tables, like I do.