2014 December Holidiva Day

This post, "2014 December Holidiva Day" was posted by AnnieinAustin/Diva Glinda to the divasofthedirt at blogspot dot com blog. If you are reading it elsewhere this copyrighted material has been used without permission.  

Mindy was excited to have our annual party at her house - it had been seven years since she'd hosted Holidiva Day and she was in a decorating mood.

We'd hoped that all our Divas of the Dirt could be together, but Sophia's sister was visiting from the Left Coast so she decided to opt out.  Mindy set 11:30am as the start-time.
Diva Annie and I counted it as a win when we arrived at 11:37am! After greetings we immediately went to look at the stylish Christmas tree all aglow in Mindy's welcoming living room.

Let's take a closer look at the ribbons and ornaments.

The table was beautiful!

I caught a picture of Annie with Karla and Mattie, the next to arrive. We'd all been at Mindy's house so many times over the years!


When I took these photos, we didn't realize they'd be "before" pictures! Not long after the holidays, Mindy & Warren began a major remodeling project that would transform the original kitchen, living room and this dining room into the home of their dreams.



Mattie was in charge of the appetizers and she chose gluten-free nibbles: Raw vegetables, hummus, corn chips, guacamole, and tasty spinach balls.


Mindy's variation on Poinsettia cocktails combined cranberry juice and Prosecco for festive sparkle.


Diva Sugar arrived with a special big salad - mixed greens, with goat cheese and pecans. Mindy looks pretty pleased about this!

For the main dish Mindy had chosen a spiral cut ham; she presented us with a choice between two sweet and tangy sauces, Jezebel sauce or Mango Jalapeno sauce. Since we are who we are... most of us chose both!


Annie brought roasted Brussel sprouts in a creamy bacon sauce...


...and Karla made a delectable sweet potato bake with a nutty top.


Everything was ready  - should we wait for Buffy? She was running late and said to start without her. Soon that salad was on the plates


In a short while Buffy arrived bearing a mandarin orange jello mold that was decorative as well as delicious. 


Dessert was.... well, guess I'll use this photo from a previous year. My contribution was the traditional Amaretto bread pudding and by the time we got to dessert, I'd completely forgotten to take a new photo.

After dinner we gathered in Mindy's living room, seated around the fireplace... but there was no crackling fire. In fact, the day was so warm the air-conditioner kept turning on!

The conversation roamed everywhere, from new jobs, to volunteer training, to cars, to health issues - but it was Kitchen Remodeling for the win!

Eventually we were in the mood for the annual "pull-a-number, choose-a-package, and see-who-steals-it" grab bag game.

Diva Annie won a Market Basket given by Buffy

Mattie won a wire wall sconce given by Mindy

Buffy won 3 Butterfly Art tiles given by Glinda


 Glinda (that's me) won a Red Barn gift certificate given by Sugar.



Mindy won a horseshoe dragonfly bought in Colorado, given by Karla



Karla won a GROW sign made of cement composite, given by Diva Annie



Sugar won the Homesick Texan Cookbook given by Mattie.



We missed Sophia, but our day had been everything that a party with old friends should be: relaxing, mellow, delicious, hilarious, warm, entertaining and emotionally enriching.

A postscript: Since this account of our holiday party was written months after it happened - I can show you what I did with that gift certificate from Sugar -it magically turned into a hanging basket containing a large hybrid Begonia with the cultivar name 'Russian Sabers'.


It's the kind of extravagant, exotic plant that you might not buy for yourself - but when there's a gift certificate to use, anything goes!

This post, "2014 December Holidiva Day" was posted by AnnieinAustin/Diva Glinda to the divasofthedirt at blogspot dot com blog. If you are reading it elsewhere this copyrighted material has been used without permission.