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.

2013 - December - HOLIDIVA DAY

The Divas of the Dirt, Austin, Texas 
 Remembering our December 2013 HOLIDIVA DAY

The December day chosen for our annual Holidiva party was unusually cold & crisp at midday, just the right kind of weather for Christmas decorations and a feast with friends.


But first things first! The hostess may be Mattie, but the house also belongs to Barbie... the little dog was delighted to see her friend Diva Annie at the door.

The dining room with its dramatic red and black table decor was beautiful. 

Annie, Karla, Sophia and I arrived close to the time on Mattie's invitation but where were the other three Divas? We weren't worried - they'd show up eventually!

We munched on delicious baked Brie & crackers served by Mattie and sipped wine provided by Karla and Mattie, enjoying being together and feeling the holiday spirit.  

A couple of hours after the planned start time, Mindy arrived bearing Poinsettia cocktails and wonderful crab cake appetizers. Not too long after that, Sugar and Buffy showed up - Buffy brought something new - Pennsylvania Eggnog.

Mindy's crab cakes had two sauces, the Brie was delicious and the wine was flowing.

Let's move into the elegant dining room.

Sophia's Spicy Tuscan Soup with sausage and kale was a hit - and it was spicy.

Since we'd had quite a lot of Brie and Crab and Soup - maybe the main courses could wait for awhile? We headed for the long sectional sofa in the living room.

It would be a good idea to play the grab bag stealing game now - look at all those beautiful packages under the tree!

The cold day meant Mattie could make a fire - perfect! We settled back with our eggnog and the gift exchange began.

All the gifts had some kind of garden theme, like these sweet watering can salt and pepper shakers.

Two sets of terracotta pot feet can be both amusing and useful on the patio.

Buffy displays salad servers made to look like small garden spades.

Glinda (that's me) went home with a beautiful ceramic bell - here it is in my garden last summer- a perfect color with blue plumbago.

Buffy found this inspirational, handmade, fired terracotta wall art at a farmers market.

Not pictured are the New Orleans recycled metal art, a beautiful handblown glass vase and a charming glass knobbed wall rack. We were all happy with our fun gifts.  

That game took a long time! We were ready to move on to the main courses. Mattie's entrée was very cool - cranberry-stuffed chicken breasts. The sides were great: Annie made mashed potatoes with wilted leeks, Karla brought asparagus with snap peas and Buffy's contribution was Spinach Casserole, Threadgill's style (heavy on the dairy, bacon & maybe ham?).

Sugar's spinach salad featured goat cheese and candied pecans.

What a delicious combination everything made on our plates

This was not a year for experimenting with dessert recipes - I baked the traditional Amaretto bread pudding, doubling the recipe for the Amaretto sauce.

Let's dish it up and celebrate a sweet end to another busy, garden-loving, friend-filled Divas of the Dirt year!

                                   The Divas of the Dirt, Austin, Texas

2010 DECEMBER - HOLIDIVA DAY

We always get together in mid-December - and not for a project/work day - just for fun. The Divas of the Dirt take turns being hostess - in 2010 I was the lucky one.

The tree was up:

The table was set. I was in a nostalgic mood and decided to use the tartan cloths from decades-ago Christmas dinners in Illinois:
Diva-Sugar was out of town and Diva-Mattie was not well but we other 6 Divas were in holiday mood. December can bring beautiful days in the seventies, just right for a stroll around the garden. The weather had been so mild that Salvias, shrimp plants, gaura, pansies, Lion's Tail and tropical milkweed were untouched by frost. We saw rosebuds and caught the camellia in bloom, wondering how long it would be before real winter arrived. (This photo was taken a few days before our party.) My camera had broken a few weeks previously and we weren't used to the new one so while our group was very together the group photo was quite unfocused!

Diva-Mindy brought champagne and the ingredients for Poinsettias - and in keeping with the nostalgia theme we drank them from vintage silver ombre glasses - very Mad Men Sixties, aren't they?
I put the salad in a vintage bowl too, but for the main dish I tried something new - Chicken Marsala with double the mushrooms and double the wine called for in the recipe:
Mindy's cocktails and Buffy's Antipasto salad on crackers were a good start
Sophia had hinted at a special soup - we hoped it was her famous Italian Wedding Soup and were glad to be right!

Karla brought a fantastic California wine along with delicious bacon bundles. Buffy arrived last, bearing the ingredients for risotto (and her cool ceramic-covered Dutch oven) prepared to cook up a treat. Mattie stopped by for a quick visit- she wasn't strong enough or well enough to join us for dinner, but she stayed long enough to sip a cup of Sophia's special soup.
Diva-Annie wrapped up the menu with a dish we never tire of -Amaretto Bread pudding - enjoyed while we played our grab bag game. Everybody plays... and everybody wins that game!