Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Merry Christmas! I managed to set up a few more tables before the holiday ended! Although this blog focuses on Christmas table settings, it features as much food as it does tableware! Last Christmas Eve, we tried making cioppino for the first time, and it seems we've started a new tradition of preparing cioppino on Christmas Eve. Both of my sons asked if we could make it again for dinner this year, and we gladly agreed. It looks like a tradition has begun!

On Christmas Eve, we had dinner at the table I had arranged last week with Fiesta and my gnome plates. We served the cioppino in Fiesta pasta bowls, which were ideal—low and flat, allowing us to see the seafood as we ate! We loosely observe the Feast of Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve. We first discovered the Feast of the Seven Fishes while living in Philadelphia, where it is celebrated by the large Italian community. When my husband and I got married in Philadelphia during Christmas, we celebrated this feast with our families before the wedding.

Cioppino was created in San Francisco by fishermen, who were either Portuguese or Italian, depending on whom you ask. This soup or stew features a tomato base with white wine and various types of seafood, similar to what we use in our Feast of the Seven Fishes. Our feast included scallops, a whole crab, shrimp, swordfish, halibut, cod, squid, and clams. The only traditional seafood we omitted was mussels, as they looked unappealing at the fish market. We've perfected the recipe, which is a blend of Phil's Fish Market—a renowned Monterey Bay restaurant—and Giada DeLaurentiis's cioppino recipes.

A crusty sourdough bread and a glass of white wine made for a perfect dinner!

On Christmas morning, we traditionally enjoy Polish sausage and eggs, honoring my Polish heritage. As a child, every Christmas morning featured Polish sausage with horseradish and eggs. I'm the only one in the family who likes horseradish, and it's rare on the west coast, but I managed to find some produced in St. Francis, WI, close to where I grew up! I even bought a jar for my dad!

Breakfast was a simple table with a checked red and green cloth, Jade and Scarlet Fiesta to match, and a casual plaid side pattern to my wedding china, Lenox Holiday. While brainstorming with a dear friend about make-ahead breakfast casseroles for Christmas morning, she mentioned that she makes monkey bread for the occasion. I quickly recalled that I still had a bag of Rhodes rolls in the freezer from Thanksgiving, and there was a monkey bread recipe on the package! Thus, this year, we included monkey bread in our Christmas morning menu!

Over the past 24 hours, we've experienced multiple power outages due to the atmospheric river affecting Northern California. On Christmas morning, I began setting the table for dinner with a specific idea in mind, but it didn't turn out as expected. I mistakenly thought my dark green tablecloth was emerald green, but it was actually more of a juniper blue-green, which clashed terribly with my dishes. The gold chargers I used were overwhelming. As I was reconsidering the entire setup, the power went out. Fortunately, there was enough daylight to redo the table. I went through my collection of Christmas tablecloths and chose my April Cornell Holly Winterberry tablecloth. This completely transformed my approach, and I ended up loving the final result!

For the plate stack, I decided against the initially planned gold charger and instead used the burgundy red beaded placemat from Thanksgiving. I included emerald green salad plates, a Lenox Holiday dessert plate, and a new addition: a Lenox Winter Greetings dip plate. I discovered these charming little plates on Etsy, and before long, they arrived at my home. The Winter Greetings plates complement the Holiday ones beautifully. I loved how the placemat and emerald green mirrored the tablecloth and china.

If you remember, I wanted gold-toned flatware for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I incorporated the new gold flatware along with my Waterford Mourne crystal. A burgundy brocade napkin and a beaded holly napkin ring, accentuating the placemat's colors and textures, completed the table setting.

The centerpiecet is simply a wreath and Fitz and Floyd reindeer. Given how busy the tablecloth is, I chose not to add much more.

For Christmas Day dinner, we have Dad's lasagna, homemade no-knead bread, and salad. For dessert, the boys and I put together a gingerbread house, and we'll become experts at demolishing it!

Yes, it came from a box, but we added a lot candies to it and an additional door!

I hope you and your loved ones had a wonderful holiday!