christmas 2008

this year has been amazing, hectic, life-changing, whirlwind crazy, upside-down, and incredibly blessed. i can't believe 2008 is almost over.

nico & i boldly went where we had never been before... we hosted our first christmas lunch this year. rather exciting, but a lot of hard work even though we only had 4 guests! the menu was made up of a few of our favourite dishes and, to our surprise, all the items worked out very well together.

the decorating also came together nicely, i chose a blue and white theme to go with our new patio chair cushions, which gave a fresh and cool twist to the traditional theming. although i was really tempted to go all out with the decorations (think fairy lights, candles, and other frills galore) i managed to control my imagination to our newly-wed budget. along with a neutral tablecloth and bright place mats we had fresh basil plants on the tables, which are renowned for deterring flies, or so they say... it didn't seem to do anything for those pesky pests buzzing around our tables though.

nico even designed a beautiful menu for this special occasion on my new macbook. we decided on a bible verse (Isaiah 42:6,9,10) for the inside facing page of the menu, what was wonderful is that this fitted in with the word my father shared with us later.

whilst it was lovely to spend the day with family, and they are set on making a tradition of having christmas at our place, i will be happy to share the duties from now on with the knowledge of all it takes to make a success of one of the biggest days of the year... after all, the day is about celebrating the coming of our saviour jesus with loved ones.