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When I saw how much butternut squash my husband grew last fall, I knew I’d be roasting it for our church Christmas party. Above, you can see that I cooked two of those four foot long butternut squashes; it took me about two days to roast that amount!
This is the first time we have hosted the church Christmas party. Our house is not large, but we all like each other, and were happy to be in close quarters for a while.
My husband and I used this party as an excuse to get a few lingering projects in the house done. We framed and hung a few new works of mine, retiring off the walls some that have been there for a while. My husband painted our half bath a bright butter yellow, which was long overdue, and is oh so cheery. (I am so grateful to have this done!!) I finished my book juggle after the homeschooling book sale I had in November; one whole bookcase is gone, another was repurposed to display things in the dining room, and books in the living room are now largely on the subject of art, poetry, or the Bible, instead of homeschooling. The butternut squash– because of this party– are now no longer taking over my foyer, and have been relegated to the basement, but if you look at the photos, you’ll see just for fun some stashed in a glass fronted bookcase. Also, after getting a new larger refrigerator that required us taking out a cabinet above it, I now have a shelf there to display our hand made pottery.
So first in the photos below you can see those updates to our home, and then we go to church, where I photograph some of the lovely people there. Our youngest daughter played Carol of the Bells beautifully on the piano in our Sunday School Christmas program and Carol Sing after church. She’ll graduate from the Sunday School in February, so this is the last Christmas program that one of our kids will participate in. I was too rapt up in her piano solo to get a picture of her doing it, but you can see some other photos from that program, after which people migrated to our house.
My husband comes from a Texas tradition of serious eggnog (no alcohol), which is so thick you cannot drink it, and a spoon is required. We used amazing New Pond Farm eggs (look at the color on those!), fresh nutmeg, and my mother’s punch bowl that has many memories packed into it for me. Everyone loved it.
The meal was potluck, and it worked out that we had way more appetizers and desserts than main meal options, but no one was complaining. Basically we had honey baked ham, roasted butternut squash, scalloped potatoes, beet and asparagus green salad, and three kinds of cornbread, along with a zillion appetizers and eight cakes among other desserts. After dinner, people mixed the eggnog in their coffee, and we played a fun word game, for which the prize was some of James’ homegrown and homemade chow chow.
Everyone had a great time, and I am very grateful for this small but strong group of wonderful people.
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7 Comments
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An interesting and warm-hearted post. Thanks, Polly, for your good work. Happy Christmas!
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Author
Happy Christmas to you!
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I see nothing requiring moderation!
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Thanks for sharing this happy warm experience. The pictures are so lively and warm and your updates look wonderful. Your artwork is maturing beautifully….(hope I can say that). Have a wonderful Christmas. Much love……
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Hope you have a wonderful Christmas too!
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Love this whole post, Polly. Merry Christmas to you and James. What a lovely church family.
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Merry Christmas to you too!
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