PARTY PREP, SHINING LIGHTS

No time to stop for pictures right now, but this is a pretty good idea of how the house is looking at this moment. I had vast, glorious dreams of having the tables all set up, draped and set by yesterday afternoon, but then, as a lot of dreams----POOF! The food's all done, all save baking the sausage balls and the gratin of artichoke dip.

Above are the old family recipe fudge that my Mother used every Christmas, except she managed to DROP it, spoon by spoon, onto waxed paper, like pralines. I can barely manage to get it into the pan before you can see the little fading shimmer that says it's setting up. Stacked tall is what must be Rocky Mountain Road, for it's very tall, with snowy clumps everywhere. It's two recipes of chocolate, with double the marshmallows and more than half the can of glorious Virginia Peanuts brought to us this Summer by our friends, the Chesapeakes.

One small recipe has no peanuts---just Bumpy Road.

It's fun this morning, though---Caro's upstairs in her beautifully-decorated realm, getting ready to cut all those bar cookies and the fudge and the lemon squares, setting them out for the choosing and the sharing tonight. Sweetpea's room was converted to a handy fridge, with windows open and lines of pans set up on a clean white sheet across her bed---the weather cooperated beautifully, with just little drifts of snow, and no more to come before our guests can make their way back to their warm homes tonight.

The scent of fresh-perked coffee, the light down the stairs from the not-yet-sunny morning, the sounds of Chris in the kitchen, slicing that beautiful rosy-pink ham to layer on the platter, my sweet silver-white tree glowing over my shoulder, lighting the corner and glistening off the glass, footsteps from upstairs---they're calling, and I must get to my part. Getting ready for a party is a lovely part of the enjoyment, and I've been enjoying this one for about three days now.

Moire non,