CHRISTMAS TABLE................

 "When we recall Christmas past,  we usually find that the simplest things give off the greatest glow of happiness..." - Bob Hope

 CHRISTMAS TABLE...........

 A time to be together. A time to  be thankful. The Table,  golden oak, vintage,   has seen it all. 

 But I remember the parties my mother threw for my friends. The Table she  set! it was painted black  back then. Along with a sideboard and hutch. There is this one pic from 1981. My mother  picked up streamers from the grocery store,  and we strung them up. The tree was decorated. The angel with her big felt feet, was tied to the tree so she could look around. And the Table  held its weight in cutlery.

1981

 My mother cooked dinner for about twenty of us. Hungry Hungry we were. My mother would not eat with us.  She ate from the leftovers. I never once saw her sit  down.Long after everyone had gone,she'd pour herself a sherry and sit by the remnants of the fire in the living room and listen to the logs crackle in the dark, with the Xmas tree lights.

 The Table was simple: paper  cloth, long taper candles
 ( real ones!) She used what she had around.Sometimes the candles fell over and scorched the paper.

 And we hung out and ate and were together. It was that simple.

 “Christmas  wrapped itself about you like a shawl. But it warmed more than your body. It warmed your heart...filled it, too, with melody that would last forever.”― Bess Streeter Aldrich, Song of Years
                                                  Now, over 30 years later, the Christmas Table has had a makeover, but it's still the same idea.

 Everyone  brings something yummy to the Table. Scalloped potatoes, roasted veggies, roasted chicken, Shipwreck Stew..... 

 We still use the same china that are now vintage. The same ones my mother and father  used many Christmases, way back when the table was new.

 Instead of sherry, we serve  Poe's Plague Wine and  6 cat Black Cider . Everyone goes home with a bottle.

 The Table enjoys being swathed in fabric from my fabric stash.  I drip gold beads from the tree, all over the centre, pine  cones  that were once purchased from a corner store.....

Fruit, Stollen, Mincemeat tarts, buns, 

 Tarts swathed in icing sugar snow.

 And candles  ( not real ones) Ones that work on batteries and glow and shimmer and are SAFER. I found gold chargers on a dusty shelf at the dollar store...some years back. They glow. Bling Bling.The Table seems to like all the attention. 

 More food, more pine cones, a larger candle under a  dome. I found it at a hardware store, on the bottom shelf. I brought it home. It usually sits on the Table. But for the night it glows over the food.

 Little glitter trees. Two for a dollar. More bling to pick up the shine. 

 And a night to remember . Every Christmas. Many friends have sat around this Table. And it remembers. Hundreds of people I suspect. It's at least 80 years old.  And every Christmas it is surrounded . If this Table could talk................

 "Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality, the flame of charity in the heart..." -Washington Irvine.

ANGELS......

 "There are people in our lives who are like angels to us." Catherine Pulsifer

 “Be kind to strangers, because it’s the loving thing to do. Also, you never know – they could be angels.” – Scott Curran

 “Angels are all around us, all the time, in the very air we breathe.”
          – Eileen Elias Freeman

 “Angels descending, bring from above, echoes of mercy, whispers of love.” –  Fanny J. Crosby

 “Angels are spirits, flames of fire; they are higher than man, they have wider connections.” – Matthew Simpson

 “Angels shine light into all areas of life… Helping you to see the light within all! ” – Melanie Beckler

 “Angels are heralds of eternity sent to help mankind break through when they cannot break out.” –  Graham Cooke

“Harmony is like singing angels; life is sweet, peaceful, and fulfilling. Let’s get harmony on the inside, and we will positively change our worlds on the outside!” – David DeNotaris

 “All God’s angels come to us disguised.” – James Russell Lowell

 “I believe in angels, the kind that heaven sends. I’m surrounded by angels, and I call them my best friends.” 
            – Pamela Daranjo

 Photographs 2019

SALTINE TOFFEE ( but it's NOT Toffee)...

"....mince-pies, plum-puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts, cherry-cheeked apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears, immense twelfth-cakes, and seething bowls of punch...." -Charles Dickens (A Christmas carol 1843)

 Sweets. Christmas and sweets. But in this case, A confection made from crackers, chocolate and brown sugar.......usually only at Christmas.  So Cheap and easy to make, you can give it away as gifts, or stash it away for those midnight forages.

 SALTINE TOFFEE ( but it's Not toffee)

 1 ½ packets of salted soda crackers

1 cup butter ( not margarine)

2 cups brown sugar

Lots  of chocolate chips lots n lots n lots

 Combine butter and brown sugar in saucepan. Boil 3 mins. 

 Careful not to have the heat to high, or it will scorch. Stir continuously, till bubbling all over and resembles gloppy pudding.

 Line cookie sheet with foil. Spray foil with Pam. 

 Lay crackers over foil.

 Fill the entire space.

 Pour mixture , thinly, over all the crackers and spread evenly.

 Bake at 350 degrees for about 5 minutes. Crackers will most likely  float. 

 Remove from oven 

 While warm, sprinkle LOTS of chocolate chips over the 
br sugar layer. 

 Cover the entire surface. Place back into warm oven.Chips will soften. Then spread with flat spatula, till all melted and even. 

 Break into pieces and keep in a cold place. It CAN be frozen, but better to eat straight from freezer rather than let thaw.  Absolutely yum yum......leave some for Santa on Christmas Eve!

 “I have always thought of Christmastime,...as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely...."
― Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Spencer-from-the-hill

Photographs 2019