Christmas Memories

2013 was quite a cracker, by now we would usually be sunning ourselves in St Barths and recovering from the excess. This year finances and timings have made the annual pilgrimage a non-starter.  I have to confess that I am missing that magical, balmy warmth of the Caribbean, however the silver lining is that Christmas festivities have not been curtailed by thoughts of bikinis and thigh skimming evening dresses on New Year's eve.
As usual festivities were a plenty, therefore picture taking was not, the two seem to be inversely proportional.

We ended up with around 10 little ones and about 15 grown ups.  The local Waitrose had all of their nibbles at half price AND were still doing 3 for 2 (Central London is a ghost town by Christmas Eve so pickings are rich for those with nerves of steel, who are prepared to wait it out)
The Champagne was from Aldi and according to the Which? guide is less acidic than Moet and Bollinger.  I downed nearly two bottles over the course of the evening and suffer from epic hang-overs, and yet the next day I was good to go with present unwrapping at 8am with  no headache at all.
All of the (gown-up) guests had stuck to the dress-code of 'dress up for Christmas'.  Sequins were aplenty and elegant and mainly in black which always looks expensive.
One of my friends wore a beautiful crystal necklace from Anthropologie which I loved, it looked something like this...

Another wore the long Chanel necklace that everyone covets and few own, her clever husband chose it all by himself a few years back, it is true that classics never date....

I wore a long red mermaid skirt and bustier (from Coast) with a cropped white cashmere Carolina Herrera cardigan, channeling Mrs Christmas to the best of my ability.

Christmas day is a haze of wrapping paper, booze and mountains of food.  I wore skinny white jeans, Rene Caovilla beaded heels and a beaded Carolina Herrera tunic, all the better for tucking in to seconds, thirds and the obligatory chocolate eating and films after Her Majesty's address.
The last few days have been more of the same, but we have transposed ourselves to the cottage where the green ribbons that I used for present giving have been re-cycled as decoration.  My theme was 'natural' and ribbons (mainly as this is what I found in the garage)....

 If anything stayed still long enough, it got beribboned, including every kitchen drawer knob...

 The re-used Easter wreaths....

 And Mr B (who didn't even wake-up)...

I hope that everyone reading this is enjoying the festive season, and it's not over yet, we can legitimately feel Christmas-y until 6th January this year!