It’s just a few more days till Christmas and I am feeling blue due to further restrictions that limit us from seeing our families and friends during this holiday season. I think it was safe to say that I thought I was thriving through this whole pandemic especially during our lockdown in March just a few days after my birthday. However, this time around, I’ve just been a little down because how can you not be with family and friends during this time? I really wasn’t expecting the second-wave to hit so hard even though it was expected but when it comes it still feels different I suppose. But today, I want to share with you a little pick-me-up blog post and showcase to you a little inspiration on how to decorate your holiday Christmas dinner table even though it might be just a couple or a few of you I thought it would still be uplifting to do so. We also made a turkey for the first time from Meatme and enjoyed some delicious wine from Cedar Creek and delightful cookies from Anjan Delights.
My Love of Hosting Holiday Edition
If you know me well and I have been following me through the year you might gather that I love to host parties, especially small intimate gatherings and fundraisers. I think if I wasn’t a blogger I might have been an event planner because I love decorating and styling events and parties. This passion for hosting stems from planning our wedding in 2012 where I really got to understand the details of party planning and really fell in love with it. From what I’ve learned from hosting all these years is that a great party doesn’t just stem from expensive food or drinks or fancy decor not at all in fact… it stems really from being organized and having great attention to detail and making each guest feel welcome – the ultimate indication of a great host/hostess. So before the restrictions, I was thinking of hosting my parents and brother but now I can’t anymore and I already picked up some new flatware, napkins, etc to decorate the table and I didn’t want to waste it so I decided to create a little inspiration to help you decorate your table for Christmas because a pretty table always brings me so much joy.
Holiday Table Décor: Black & Plaid
A great party doesn’t mean it has to be extravagant but some simple decor is still appreciated and what I like to do is use items I already have and add some newer ones making sure most of them will serve multiple purposes. So this year my theme surrounds these beautiful matte black ceramics I already own and was gifted to me from Fable and I also love red plaid for the holidays so I thought why not combine them together and it turned out to be very elegant, stylish and festive at the same time. When I was shopping for ornaments to add to my Christmas tree at Hudson’s Bay, I stumbled upon these gorgeous plaid napkins on sale and these matte black flatware also on sale (Fable also has matte black flatware that’s very pretty). What I love about shopping at the bay is that they have great quality pieces and they often have great sales so I love shopping there for decor. So pretty much everything you see on the table is from the bay (other than the plates and bowls) like these real birch candles I got years ago, these faux holly pics which I also use as decor for my mantle or filling in my tree but will use as my floral/greenery decor for the table. These holly picks (on sale of course) were probably my best find because they really define the use of multipurpose and I just absolutely adore them. For the floral/greenery inspiration I used the faux holly picks and mixed it with some real pine that I got from the grocery store which was very inexpensive and the mix of faux and real worked together perfectly. Then I just added some red ornamental balls from my tree to tie in the whole theme. I also used these abstract gold cocktail glasses from West Elm as water cups because we are having wine instead and finished the decor off by adding some faux pinecones which is always a lovely touch to any winter-themed decor.
A Meatme Christmas dinner
I have been working with Meatme, a local subscription meat delivery service now for about a year and a half and I have to say it’s been one of my longest and favourite partnerships thus far. I just love their meats and their mantra of transparency and a conscious effort in reducing our collective carnivorous footprint is amazing. When they first approached me I never even fathom a concept like this and thought why wasn’t there a service like this already? Not only do they offer 100% natural and pasture-raised meats but they also support local farmers and can I mention that it’s all delivered nicely in their meatme box right to your door. I particularly like their family box where you receive a variety of different meats (steaks, sausages, burger patties etc), seafood (spot prawns) and fish (Sablefish, Lingcod, Halibut, Chinook salmon) really giving us that farm-to-table feel right at home. I look forward to their delivery every month and can I just say my daughter loves to play with their boxes too! For special occasions like Thanksgiving and Christmas, they also offer special roasts and turkeys and this year we really wanted to try out their turkey and we did! It’s usually my brother that makes turkey since he is a professionally trained chef and also my dad (we owned restaurants back in the day) so I am very blessed to come from a family of men that can cook very very well. My husband started to cook during my third trimester of pregnancy since I was unable to and he just fell in love with it afterward and truly has become an amazing cook (almost as good as my brother and dad but don’t tell them lol). My husband was very excited because it was his first time making a turkey and it turned out pretty good just look at the spread! The turkey they delivered was about 10 pounds and was plenty for the 5 of us and would have been perfect if my family came over but that’s ok we made turkey noodle soup after and fried rice after so love a post-Christmas meal leftover right?
Wishing you a Safe and Happy Holiday Season
Well, I just want to end this blog post by saying it has been a crazy year and I am excited to end on a positive note. Although there have been many challenges, it wasn’t all bad because I got to spend more time at home with my daughter, learned how to use zoom meetings for the first time and I’ve gotten tremendous opportunities in 2020 so it’s somehow a blessing in disguise. I have also LEARNED a lot this year about the world and myself and realized that even though it might not feel like anything is happening since we are stuck at home, the world continues to turn! So I urge you to reach out and connect with friends, families or a colleague that you haven’t spoken to yet because they might just need to hear or see your face via zoom. Thank you again for tuning in and following me this year, I always feel so humbled for writing this line because to be able to be here and do this and call this my job is like a dream and I am always grateful for your support.
Wishing you a safe and happy holiday season and a great start to 2021.
Thanks for reading!
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Supporting local this christmas