Our ‘hood is in its last holiday phase days and is about to change again as we move into 2012. The poinsettias are wilting and the Christmas trees are getting prickly… it’s time to undeck the halls and pack the ornaments and lights away til next year. (Has anyone written a “carol” about this?)

And the food! Oh, the food. Are you stuffed? I know I am and there are still more holiday celebrations offered in our local restaurants and in our own homes. New Year’s Eve dinner and New Year’s Day brunch! It seems as if I’ve done nothing but eat since Thanksgiving! Not that I’m complaining, but wow, a week of lettuce leaves sounds tempting. Well, maybe not that tempting!

This year’s foodie last hurrah started at a birthday celebration at Ca del Sole (a favorite neighborhood ‘haunt’on Cahuenga) and continued at various friends’ Christmas parties. I ate quiche (real women eat quiche), cheeses and pates… turkey, ham and all the trimmings… jambalaya, rib roast and a pasta with pesto… red velvet cake, pecan pie and Christmas cookies…

… and then it was our turn for our traditional Christmas Eve supper (over twenty years, but who’s counting) for hundreds (ok, about thirty, but who’s counting).

I decked the halls, maybe not with boughs of holly, but with garlands, candles, twinkle lights and mementoes tucked here and there on our two fireplace mantels. Each room had a Christmas tree, a traditional wreath hung on our front door, and the outside of our house was bejeweled with little white lights welcoming friends both old and new.

As our first guests arrived and Christmas carols caroled from our IPod, my husband poured them a glass of cheer, but soon lost control as the guests poured in, bearing gifts of food and wine. The eating started in earnest… an appetizer on a block of salt ice, cheese puffs… pastries (cheese puffs here, pastries there, here a plate, there a plate, everywhere a brimming plate) and more.

For the “main course” my husband had made poached salmon with a champagne vanilla sauce, turkey tetrazzinis, bourbon-laced sweet potatoes, salad, green beans with red bell peppers, and a Christmas ham. Desserts from friends included cheese and rum cakes, cookies, chocolate and pumpkin pies… oh my. Who needed visions of sugar plums? Not I.

As everyone mingled, cheese’d, pastry’d, salmon’d and tetrazzini’d, we sipped, we talked, we laughed and wished each other wonderful things for the new year. We ate and ate (okay, we binged), but we were  grateful that once again, we shared in the warmth of friends and could add more stories to that music box of memories dancing in our heads. 

Monday the trees come down and life returns to “normal”… which may involve lettuce leaves.

Happy New Year everyone!