Merry Christmas Kitty Ornaments

                 Merry Christmas from my favorite Jack-in-the-box kitty ornament

                        Here's the new calico kitty addition to my tree thanks to my sister Lucia

                                   And here's another cutie from a few years back

A Rustic Christmas Eve/Hanukkah Table

Last year Christmas Eve and Hanukkah fell within a few days of each other, so our multi-denominational family was able to celebrate the two holidays together. The Seattle Stein family arrived in town just in time for our annual Christmas Eve crab extravaganza at Ricki's lovely Sea Cliff home. This rare religious coincidence allowed Ricki to pour her creativity into a table depicting the entire holiday season.

She combined winter greenery, berries and pine cones gathered in her San Francisco neighborhood, with elegantly arranged succulents and mosses spanning the length of the table. With flair she placed miniature wooden dreidels, horses, donkeys, ladders and other objects from her years of collecting.

          As usual, the tablecloth, napkins, china, glasses, silverware and serving pieces were perfection. Check out her beautiful  2018 Thanksgiving table Here and her Thanksgiving 2013 table  Here. 

I snapped photos from all angles before we assembled for dinner. Here you can see a miniature dreidel and goat

I can't wait to see this year's Christmas Eve table

Thanksgiving '18 at Ricki's

             Another Thanksgiving---Another stunning table by Ricki. To best showcase the table, this photo is in the original size, so please forgive the sidebars that appear down the middle.

Here are some more decorative details

The Rustic Squash Centerpiece

A place setting with Italian Deruta Dinner plates

Another View of the table

        The table just before we sat down to the first course of Sande's crab, avocado and papaya salad