And lo, a tree

Tonight was our night to host the more-or-less weekly potluck Brown dinner. Last year I just didn't feel festive for some reason, but this year I've been wanting tradition, so we settled on a theme of peppermint (either the flavor, or red and white food. Jonathan took it all a step further and made pepper and mint pesto. yum.).

Since our apartment wasn't holidayish at all, I went questing in our neighbourhood for greens to make an advent wreath.



The berries were a major find. Every other year that bush has been orange. I don't know if it's a maturity thing, or due to the recent cold snap, but I love the red as an accent. And I found perfect, little pinecones under a tree up the street. How pretty! And, best of all, this is the first year that the types of evergreen available hasn't grated against my sense of a proper wreath. Am I finally settled in Seattle?

I neglected to take pictures of everyone, but the early arrivers are all bustling in the kitchen here:



Ginger even dressed for the theme. She made soup, Graham made mozzarella pizza in peppermint candy form, we made drinks including hot chocolate and peppermint schapps with a candy cane swizzle, and everyone else brought desserts, appetizers, homemade peppermint stick ice cream, and other pastas... we never seem to lack for food.

And Andi and Ginger helped me decorate the tree. Here's Andi trying to follow the (my) exacting tinsel protocol.



:-) And just for fun, since we've now been getting together for over a year, a list of past themes:

Fall foods	The letter 'S'
Stuffed food	Home cooking
Finger food	Pizza
Cheese	Mexican
Grown in Washington	Crepes
Spheres	Kids' food
Fresh fruit	Spice
Nuts	Layers
Summer	0s and 1s
Food that shares a name with a country/state/city	Breakfast
Brown foods	Beer
Things which aren't brown	Thanksgiving
Foods in songs	Grilling
Uwajimaya	Things that go with lasagna
BBQ	Aphrodisiacs
Mother's Day	25 for $25
Triangles and wedges	Johnny Rockets
Frozen foods	Food you can use as a weapon
Irish food	Chopsticks
Appetizers	Americana/elections
Colors of the rainbow	Peppermint
Honey