HoundBlog

Last night was the GKC annual Christmas Party. This year they had it at the Poinsett Club which is this antebellum building downtown where gazillions of young ladies have danced at balls and cotillions over the decades and where wedding receptions are held and just about any top social event is held. It’s a beautiful place that is decorated at Christmas time like some kind of castle. Giant Nutcrackers guard the exterior doors and each of the huge rooms is garlanded with real pine garland, holly, and fairy lights and where real Christmas trees decorated like something out of House Beautiful grace every corner.  This was a sit-down dinner and the round tables were set beautifully with silver place settings and lovely china. I mean they were set with all 12 pieces from salad fork to dessert spoons! Linen napkins for your laps and tablecloths on the tables. Our events chairman had made centerpieces for each table that were rosemary bushes shaped like Christmas trees which were decorated with dog bones, tiny glass ornaments and red velvet bows. Each pot that the bush was planted in was tied with a wide red velvet ribbon tied into a lovely bow.

There were only two entrees offerred — shrimp and grits and a chicken dish. I had ordered the shrimp and grits while Charlotte got the chicken. It was pretty good, although not the best shrimp and grits I’ve ever had. Charlotte said her chicken was tasty enough, but when she got to the leg, she left most of it as she didn’t want to pick it up with her fingers (it had some kind of sauce on it) and it was too hard to cut the meat off the bone with a knife. (You would think that as posh as that place was, they would have used boneless chicken for that dish so people all dressed up in their party finery would not get food on their clothing trying to eat.) Dessert was a lovely french silk pie which was served with some wonderful coffee.

Anyway, after dinner, we did our traditional gift exchange. In years past, this has been a white elephant exchange, but lately, everyone has brought nice gifts that you’re not too ashamed to take home 😆 I brought a jar candle with a pretty top. Charlotte brought some Christmas ornaments that had dogs painted on them. I already have a set of those, so when my turn came, I chose a different gift and ended up with a can of gourmet hot chocolate mix and a package of gourmet coffee. Now, Ken will not drink the coffee, so I brought that into work where we’re enjoying it this afternoon. I’ll keep the hot chocolate mix at home and Ken and I will enjoy that on cold winter mornings or in the evening when we’re watching TV.

I had ordered a dress for this party and it was scheduled to be delivered yesterday, but the Fed Ex guy didn’t make it until 7:00 pm last night. So, I had to wear something from a couple of years ago. Oh well, now I have a dress for next year 🙂 The one I bought is very pretty — just a simple mocha colored sheath with a beaded bolero jacket. Maybe by next year I can make sure I have some jewelry to go with it. This year I just wore pearls which complemented the ivory two piece dress I wore.

We even got home at a reasonable hour — 10:00pm, so I was able to get a decent night’s sleep before coming into work today. Thankfully, it’s been quiet here at work, too. That’s giving me time to work on some projects I’ve been keeping on the back burner. I might actually complete some of them before it picks up again in a couple of weeks ❗

Well, back to the grindstone!

Love to all,

Margaret