Our Post Christmas Dinner Party~ Thursday Favorite Things

 Today I am   joining along with Amber   at Follow the Yellow Brick Road.

Last night we were  so fortunate to be able to host a small dinner party for 4 best friends. These two couples  attend our church and we have been   socially distancing and wearing our masks  for a  few weeks now and  felt it was safe to  be able to enjoy   the seaon together.

Earlier in the season while shopping at Hobbie Lobbie,  I found these cute  place setting holders  and knew  I had to have them.. The  little country red truck had  captured my attention last Christmas and  always reminded me of  going to grandmas as child, so  these just jumped out at me.  Immediately I had   the  thought of creating a tree farm  on the table  where " shoppers" could  buy their trees and  cart them away.

I was thrilled to find a whole slough of  trees at once at Amazon!  Note, in the center is  my hubby's  cute little  torquoise colored  sedan   he  kept from his childhood. - the perfect size for my  tree farm!

I thought the black buffalo  cloth would    be just right  for the   back drop  and I remembered I had red   checked napkins, so I was in business! I love pairing the   black check with my  black    with the ring of holly  place mats I found at Stein Mart last year.

That move prompted me to substitute  my white plates for the red transfer wear  ones I had  planned.  I like the contrast in tones!

  

And I had  at least 6  of each pattern I purchase.

Our menu was  perfect:

We started with :

 sausage balls witha  hot mustard dipping sauce

Mixed nuts

Homestead Creamery Eggnog (YUM)

Then we sat down to:

Cranberry punch/water

cabbage winter salad with cranberries and walnuts and a  homemade honey mustard dressing

roasted pork tenderloin

fresh cooked green beans with country ham

potato stacks  with gruyere chesse and bacon

blueberry crisp with vanilla ice cream

You might be wondering what the canisters were for?  Those canisters went right along with the theme so I had to have them,  as  a vehicle to    for sharing treats with my friends!

This is  our great band of buddies1    Always a great time with  these special friends!!

I like to retire to the parlor between dinner and dessert!

It was to balmy   yesterday for fire,  but    the  conversation was  still  wonderful!

I k now a lot of folks a re  starting to get their decorations down and put away if they havent already.  Not me.  I believe in  going straight through to Epiphany, January 6th.  I get my  best holiday   revival  in  during the post Christmas days when I can sit by a fire, listen  to carols and  contemplate  what has gone   behind us and what is  coming  upon us.    I  have all my  getting ready  and cooking behind me and   now it is all JOY!