Extra holiday bits

We started our family Christmas with a toast in our antique sherry glasses that belonged to my step-grandmother. We had sparkling cider for those who don't drink and champagne cocktails for those who do.

{christmas toast}

Normally I would just dish out champagne plain, but it turns out when you make orangettes you are left with the most fabulous orange flavored simple syrup. Throwing it out would be a sin. So we poured it in a jar and kept it in the fridge and stirred a spoonful into our champagne. Heavenly. I tried to get fancy and decorate the rims of the glasses with orange peel, but I gave up and just chucked it in the bottom of the glass, along with a couple cranberries. Works for me.

The night before New Year's Eve we decided to host at our apartment. It was a completely non-fancy dinner, but I couldn't resist dressing up the table.

{new year's eve table}

After I dug up all three of the candle holders we own I realized that they weren't going to cut it. So I dug around a bit more and pulled out some of the glass jars that have been taking up space in our cupboard because we have a hard time just throwing them out.

{new year's eve table}

I picked out a variety of sizes (which turned out to be easy - I didn't realize how out of control our jar collection has gotten) and popped a votive in each one. We also gave everyone a champagne glass, a squat wine glass and a tall water glass, to add to the overabundance of glassware.

{new year's eve table}

We missed the New Year by one minute (distracted) but we toasted anyways.