We have a habit of staying in on New Year’s Eve and our “tradition,” loose use of the word as it is, is to watch a movie, flip over to see the ball drop, clink Champagne glasses, kiss, and go back to the movie. Dinner is up to whomever is cooking, but it’s usually something that lends itself to being eaten on the sofa while watching said movie. This year we decided on a variety of nibbles and the ooey-gooey goodness of cheese fondue.

Fondue is not complicated. It’s shredded cheese (often one or more of the Swiss varieties), a little wine or beer (or broth if you so choose), and a touch of mustard or garlic. And if kept adequately hot it remains nice and smooth and dip-able. Some fondue pots are electric but ours is of the sterno/candle variety–seriously, never underestimate the power of a tea light!–and we were missing one crucial piece of the puzzle.

A match.

Or lighter or any other fire-starter you can think of. We searched high, we searched low. We searched junk drawers, offices, the butler’s pantry, the bar. And despite knowing for a fact that we owned at least 2 boxes of matches and one long-arm lighter, none could be found. The only thing we could locate was a box of strike-on-box fat lighter sticks, but that seemed like overkill, so Todd did the logical thing and went to the store 4 hours til midnight.

Dinner is served… and saved!

Our movie was From Time to Time, with Maggie Smith, and old drafty manor house, and a family secret that needed to be solved pronto, all set in the last days of WWII. That’s pretty much our movie preference tied up in a bow, though it’s in stark contrast to the numerous episodes of Criminal Minds we mainlined on Christmas day.

I’ve put in a request to add more 2-player board games to our stash so we can switch up our routines a bit.

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This weekend was super-productive and I’m starting of this week with a very Seize the Day attitude. It was a mix of fun, work, and future work and I’ll walk into work for the second time in as many weeks with a clear desk.

Today I’ve got a post up over on Love My Fabrics about my favorite sewing technique: French seams. We (the creative team) are still anxiously awaiting our fabric to arrive, but it’s not stopping us from posting. (I also wrote a post last month on organizing my fabric stash.) Speaking of my posts elsewhere, I created a couple different types of ornaments for my December Gauche and Helmar projects. The Gauche site is currently in transition, but you can find out about my Victorian Lady ornaments on the Helmar blog.

My Gauche-inspired Vintage Christmas ornament.

I had big plans for decorating the Dollhouse for Christmas. We got, um, maybe 50% there? The exterior got garland, lights, and wreaths, but the inside only managed to decorate 2 of 4 planned trees and the hallway entry. Oh, well, it gives us something to shoot for next year!

The library hosted our “fussy” Victorian-style tree with lots of handmade glittery paper ornaments and bits of bling.

And we avoided rearranging the living room by sticking to our small table-top tree with the fun, colorful, mismatched ornaments on it.

The big tree was on the upstairs landing but it never got more than lights on it. Which was good since that’s what shone through the upstairs center window.

What you can’t see are the wreaths in the upstairs windows with the room lights off. We did finally procure electric candles but never got around to setting them up. Next year!

It’s not a full-on blogger house tour, but I wanted to at least get these pictures up before the decorations all come down on the 6th–just made it!