well, minus the garden . . . and most of the home, but the table sure looks good! we seldom get to show off our home in any way at the moment. we have no real furniture, what we do have is rather old and most of it ratty or makeshift. we're still working on that whole getting stable thing, so buying the furniture we need has been out of the question, much less buying the furniture we want. i'm always a little embarrassed when people come by to visit because we really don't have any place for anyone to sit. and everything is either unsturdy or too cushy and sinkable. heck, saxy and i sleep in the living room, so we hardly ever have the futon couch up as a couch.

but we've made an effort to dress up our tables for the holidays. we found these little stockings that are supposed to be ornaments. instead i stuffed them with green napkins that match the pattern in our christmas red tablecloth and slipped the silverware inside. these have been set beside our silver and gold edged white place settings. i also managed to pick up some holly etched goblets, so those are on the table as well. the extra napkins have been laid out in a double diamond pattern and the candles and wooden salt and pepper shaker are on them. it's quite an elegant setting and i can hardly wait to show it off with pictures.

the table doesn't really have space for the food, so we've set up the table in our little dinette as a buffet table. a dark purple-maroon tablecloth with the same pattern as the above red one and napkins covers it. the centerpiece is a glass bowl full of glass christmas tree ornaments (which we never put on the tree - they were picked up especially for this purpose) and two coffee mugs - one with penguins and the other with a reindeer (and each with a matching stuffed animal inside), one on each side of the bowl, and the whole surrounded by this little poinsettia garland i've had for awhile. i also have the christmas pot holders laid out and waiting for the pots that will go on them and 2 white plates filled with cookies as well as some more dark green napkins (though these are paper). we also have the roll basket on the table, complete with the 2 plaid napkins i picked up just for covering the rolls. saxy's taken a picture of it minus the food. as soon as dinner is laid out, he'll take another picture.

and, yes, i plan to show off everything, including the before and after pictures of the buffet table.

on the menu tonight: my cornish game hens basted with butter and brown sugar and stuffed, yams with brown sugar and marshmallows, dinner and crescent rolls, green beans, corn, mashed potatoes, olives, cranberry sauce, martinelli's cider, and eggnog. i may even put out the salad left from yesterday's dinner. dessert is, of course, pies. and cookies. yes, we end up with a lot of leftovers. but that's precisely why we don't do turkey. you get tired of that real quick. we end up eating christmas dinner for a few days afterwards. but this year, that will be good. there will be some left for linnorm for when he gets here monday. no hen, but plenty of other stuff and chicken is easy to find. ;)

the gift giving is over and was nice. the kids liked what they were given. kitten received a santa stuffed tiger, gargoyles season 1 dvd, alphabet of thorn by patricia mckillip, and an egyptian mask made by froggy. jewel was given a pair of soft slippers, two pairs of earrings, a book for her poetry, sinner by sarah douglass, and a storage box for her jewelry. froggy received a hair boutique, the madagascar soundtrack, the dragon riders of pern omnibus by anne mccaffrey, and a radio/clock/cd player. taz got the most, but his presents were also generally the cheapest - 3 boxed hot wheels sets, the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe by c. s. lewis, along with a chronicles of narnia calendar, a dragon shirt, and a sponge bob snow globe toy. each of the three youngers also received birthstone charmlets from kitten. saxy was given the dvd version of "kindred the embraced" (he had it on vhs) and a live benatar album from the whole family, the golden eye playstation game from me, a wolf calendar from kitten, an art image from froggy, and the "fantastic four" soundtrack. as for myself, kitten gifted me with a silver hoop earring set, the kids and saxy gave me the dimwit's dictionary of overused words and phrases, froggy gave me this crystal dolphin, and saxy gave me these gorgeous gold and mother of pearl earrings the collective soul "music in high places" dvd. so, all in all, we did well. the kids are pretty happy with their gifts, saxy was both surprised and pleased with his, and i am more than content. i know the holidays aren't supposed to be about getting presents, but it is sure nice to see those you love happy with what you give.

speaking of which, froggy seems to be growing towards a generous spirit. not being able to buy gifts, she picked out a few of her things that were in the best condition and that were either made by her or precious to her and wrapped those up for everyone. it was a joy to watch her eagerly watching everyone open her carefully chosen gifts. she had more excitement over us opening her gifts than she did opening her own. with the exception of the clock/radio/cd player. she really wanted that and was pretty excited about getting it. still, it was such a pleasure to see her more excited about her giving than her receiving. it's a quality i hope she never loses.

and even the cats got a present. they're very glad the tree no longer looks so home & garden any more. the present are cleared for them to lay down on the tree skirt comfortably.

as soon as the pictures are developed, i'll share some of our home & garden with you, just wait and see. :)