A LITTLE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT DINNER AND AWARD

I am again joining Tablescape Tuesday hosted by Susan at Between Naps on the Porch.

I have set a simple table for a Christmas Eve dinner. As you will see, I am not very discriminating about mixing colors and patterns (sometimes I wonder if I am color blind). I try to use what I have on hand, or what I have bought in my bargain shopping (and I'm afraid I don't have a lot of concern about any of it matching!).

The red toile placemats were a gift from my son and daughter-in-law last Christmas. The green toile napkins were from Tuesday Morning's after-Christmas sale a few years ago.

This Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus were a gift from my husband. (He picked them out all by himself--isn't he the best?)

I just used some cuttings off of our Christmas trees in vases on the tables.

I used votive candle holders that I purchased years ago on sale at Pier One. The star cut outs make a pretty glow on the mirrors. The mirrors are only at each end of the centerpiece. They are part of a three piece set, but the middle piece would not make the set long enough to go under the entire centerpiece, so I just tucked the two end pieces under the fabric on each end of my centerpiece.

Thank you for stopping in to see my Christmas Spirit tablescape. Please go to Between Naps on the Porch to see all of the beautiful tablescapes.

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I am so proud that I have received a very special award from some very special bloggers. The Christmas Spirit award has been given to me by:

Melissa at Melissa's Heart and Home

Lynne at Lynne's Gifts From the Heart

Chari at Happy To Design, and

Diane at Four Paws and Company .

All of these are great blogs, so it makes this award even more special. If you haven't already, please go visit them, and see for yourself how great they are.

Here are the rules for the Christmas award:

You must be a true Christmas lover to receive this award.

The person to whom you give the award must also be in love with Christmas.

You must link back to the person who gave you the award.

You must list 5 things that you love about Christmas. If you can't limit it to 5 things, then keep going till you run out of space!

Pass the award along to as many people as you like. That can be 1 or 50. It's up to you! But, you must pass it on to at least one person in order to keep the Christmas cheer going!

Let your recipients know that you have tagged them by leaving them a comment.

Five things I love about Christmas:

1. I love that it is the celebration of the birth of Christ.

2. I love the excitement and feelings of good will that seem to radiate from most people during the holiday season.

3. I love that our extended family gathers for Christmas Eve.

4. I love that my children, their spouses, and our four grandchildren gather for Christmas morning and afternoon.

5. I love that, on Christmas Eve, all of the children in our extended family, participate in a re-creation of the journey of Mary and Joseph, and we put the youngest (usually an infant) in a basket and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. Last year, since we had new twins in the family, we had to switch the infant during the program, because the mother did not want one of them (when they were old enough to see pictures) to wonder why his brother got to be Baby Jesus and he didn't! We will have several new infants at our celebration this year, so I am wondering how many times Baby Jesus will be switched during the program!

6. I love the Christmas music at church, and I love the candlelight service at church.

7. I love the chocolate that I consume between Thanksgiving and Christmas that always leads to my quickly ignored New Year's Resolution to stop eating sweets!

You knew I couldn't stop at 5! Sorry! There really are more of them, but I'll stop now, since, as usual, I've gone on too long, and I'm afraid if I keep going, nobody will ever return to visit my blog!

I'd like to give this award to:

Lilly at Lilly Loves, who in spite of the fact that she has just moved into a new home and has arrived with some broken Christmas decor, she is decorating her new home for Christmas,

and the other Laurie, Decorating Fanatic. If you haven't seen her blog, you need to go look at her beautiful decor,

and Rose at A Santamaker's Journey. Although she may be a little tired of it all right now, you can't show much more Christmas spirit than she does by making beautiful Santas.

I think most of the other bloggers with Christmas spirit have already received this award, but if you haven't, I'd love for you to come pick it up and put it on your blog, because I don't know any bloggers who don't have the Christmas spirit. laurie