Christmas eve celebration

OK, it's a day late, but I finally got around to getting these off my camera. These are the photos I took on Christmas eve at Dana's.

I think I mentioned how much she loves Nativity scenes, and she has tons of them. This is in her entry.

This is in another room.

I forgot to take a photo of what Dana calls her kitchen table. Yep, I decorated it.

It didn't take long to fill it with all kinds of appetizers. You would have thought an army was coming.

Dana made her own marshmallows and she was in the process of cutting the rest of them when I got there.

Here she rolls them in powdered sugar and begins cutting.

I had a hard time getting the right lighting in her kitchen, but I think you can make out the process.

There were snacks and goodies

everywhere you looked.

As Dana's MIL

and daughter ate their snacks,

Dana's husband and dog took a well deserved nap.

I worked on setting the table,

then Dana took a few minutes out to pose with their dog, whose red eye I couldn't get corrected.

Dana made her dress, including the cross stitch.

She also made her darling earrings.

Dana's husband woke as we were taking the photos.

Next came the ritual of the tree topper. It was made years and years ago by Dana and this year it was her daughter's turn to put it on the tree. It's too bad you can't see her cute face.

Here is Dana's daughter climbing up to reach the top of the tree.

Now the topper is in place. What a wonderful ceremony on Christmas eve.

Late in the day, Dana removed the homemade cake with homemade marshmallows from the fridge and set it on a cake plate to warm.

Dana's husband watches as she places it in a warm spot in her kitchen,

then takes time to give her a hug.

I really messed up with the dinner photos. I somehow thought I was naming them, then deleted them, only to learn I had named the same photo something different each of six times. So, Dana's daughter is the only one whose photo actually survived the dinner.

After dinner we relaxed and Dana and I exchanged gifts. Her beautiful cat Whisper watched. What a fun day and night.