Wreath making party!

Once a year, in early December, our house gets very noisy. People talking, walking around, eating cookies and cake and vegetables with various dips, wrestling pine boughs into wire wreath frames, hunting down just the right shiny bits to brighten up their wreaths -- yes, it's Jeannine's annual wreath making party. 

She's been doing this since our daughter was an infant, and although I am not at all what you would call a party person, this is one party I enjoy. It's tiring, but a lot of fun, and the house smells great -- all those pine branches and the delicious cooking aromas. And we get to see people we don't see as often as we'd like.

Plus, we have the opportunity to view all kinds of unique and creative wreaths. Here's a shot of my relatively staid one:

This year, I actually got started on and finished my wreath before guests started to arrive, allowing me more time to walk around and chat with friends and family. I think I'll make that a tradition. -- PL

P.S. Jeannine and Emily did a lot of baking and cooking, but I made one contribution to the food spread -- these fruit plates. Love the little shiny plastic forks!

Making wreaths

Yesterday we had our twenty-first (or was it the twenty-second?) consecutive annual wreath making party. I say "our", but even though I help her with it to some degree, it's really been Jeannine's baby. She started it, and has kept it going through all these years.

For a few hours on one December afternoon, our usually quiet house bustles with activity and resounds with the happy noises of people busily crafting wreaths in a wide variety of styles.

We're fortunate that we have on our property plenty of fir trees from which to harvest boughs. This year, Jeannine discovered that one of the trees in our yard -- right behind our garage, in fact -- was laden with the really cute little pine cones which look so nice on a wreath. They were on mostly high branches, so I got a chance to break out my new tree long-handled pruning device, which worked great. 

Jeannine made lots of delicious cookies and other treats, and some of the guests added to the spread with their own yummy offerings.

Almost all of the people we invited were able to come, including a few wreath making "newbies". Of course, you couldn't tell that by their finished wreaths, which were gorgeous. And we had a special guest -- our daughter Emily, who worked out a Christmas schedule which allowed her to come to the wreath party (something she hasn't done for four or five years) as well as for Christmas itself. She got a chance to visit with her new cousin (who just turned two), resulting in this desperately cute photo:

We were pretty wiped out after the party, but it was that happy kind of tired. And I would be remiss if I did not mention the fact that my good pal Mike Dooney stayed after the party to help clean up. Thanks, MD!

I made my usual wild and ungroomed style wreath, and here it is...

... hanging on our front door. -- PL