My Christmas at Home

January 3, 2011

A very happy New Year to all of you! I hope that the holidays were healthy and enjoyable. I’m back from a much-needed rest in St. Barts – perhaps you’ve been following my Tweets. Let me begin this New Year by sharing a bit of my Christmas with you. As you may have heard, I am busy writing the text for a new book on entertaining and with television on holiday hiatus, I finally had the time to devote to this project. I took a break, on Christmas day, when Alexis and Kevin arrived and we proceeded to create a lovely lunch. The table was set with Limoges, a gift from a friend. With that and with some from my collection, the table was gorgeous and lunch was yummy, too!

: It was as if pink cotton candy was stretched across the sky.

: It seemed as though the entire farm was washed in pink.

: On Christmas morning, the sunrise was simply magical! However, they do say that ‘pink sky in the morning, sailors take warning’ and there was a blizzard the next day.

: I am very impressed with the fine ‘tailoring’ of the burlap this year. It’s neater than ever!

: Princess Peony joined me for this early Christmas stroll.

: This Christmas tree with its giant ornaments really looked good on the terrace.

: With every passing minute, the sky became less pink.

: I watched it gradually turn to blue.

: Turning towards the west, I spied the waning full moon.

: And there was Vivaldi, too!

: Christmas was a small and intimate celebration this year.

: Each and every package was wrapped exquisitely.

: This is a crafter’s dream! – A pail filled with Martha Stewart craft supplies from Michaels. http://www.michaels.com/

: Kevin is always generous with double-faced satin ribbons.

: With the addition of this lovely Limoges gift, setting an elegant table was so easy.

: The birch bark-wrapped candles were a lovely addition.

: This amazing fish platter was part of the Limoges gift. The bottom is stamped B & C Limoges France L. Bernardaud.

: These floral-edged soup bowls were already a part of my collection. They are stamped Venice T&V Limoges France Ovington Bros NYC.

: I have a large collection of antique hand-embroidered linens, which are so much fun to use. My housekeeper, Laura Acuna, does an amazing job of laundering and ironing them.

: This is one of the dinner plates that Jim gave me. Each plate in the set is decorated with a different fish. He also gave ma a stack of kidney-shaped plates, as well.

: Kevin presented me with these amazing Paris porcelain compote dishes from 19th-century. He found them at David Stypmann Antiques in New York City.

: Their detail is fantastic from their gilded edges to their gilded feet.

: And I love that there’s even a little leaf design inside.

: This tiny Chinese tea set was a special gift for sipping the best quality tea.

: Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love playing scrabble. I was very impressed with this hardwood edition of the classic word game.

: It has embossed wood tiles, a rectangular raised letter grid, and metal tile racks. I could barely wait to get a game started.

: I was also given a personalized thermos bottle for hot and cold beverages.

: One course at lunch was bucatini with fabulous osetra caviar from Russ and Daughters. http://www.russanddaughters.com/

: We also had homemade fettuccini with black truffle – it was divine! The pasta is so yellow from the deep yellow yolks of the eggs that my chickens lay.