Thanksgiving was wonderful.
We escaped via 95 South and headed to New Yawk!
We were on the road with good company, Christmas Trees!!


Saw a little parade

Family...

A Tree...


Of course when you are home you are given reminders of
holidays past...


We came back to Provincetown to a
beautiful lit holiday Pilgrim Monument behind our home

5am..outside our window
I had to share
( not that I was up at 5am, but the beauty outside the window!)


With Thanksgiving over, it's serious decorating time!
The theme this year
The Home of Charles Dickens
Our yearly holiday party revolves around a professional reading of
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens...
Gabriel's has slowly been turning into a home inside and out Mr. Dickens would be proud of

The making of a Victorian Dickens home

How does one make a Tudor house?
You paint trim board for days:
"Tudor Brown" to be exact.
You measure your house
You arrange your Tudor Trim around 7 times..
You hold up your sketches you have done for weeks
You smile and say...
Umm could take it down and do it again?
And you hope Mr. Dickens would be happy









You find old wooden shutters


and move the Tudor Trim once again....

You make a decision
that Tudor stucco, applied behind the trim,
would indeed be to difficult
to remove after the Holiday

You forgo the stucco

Moving on to one of the 3 trees in the now "Dickens Parlor"
( popcorn and cranberry is currently being strung..stay tuned for updated pics)

The entire cast of Dickens "A Christmas Carol" line the mantel

You realize in a couple of days you are having a
sit down dinner for 30 people...
Time to start making the center pieces..finish the tree
tune up the cello...pick up the turkey, ham, goose and roast the chestnuts!


A true Victorian dinner awaits
As well as more pictures








More pictures are here!
It's now Friday evening and we accomplished a remarkable amount today!
We hung are Dickens sign...yes, home made!

We rolled the tables in







We moved them around as much as the
Tudor trim!
We finally got it perfect










I had to post these beautiful carrots
Look at all the different shades...
they are English carrots and what better
blend for our Dickens dinner!!








Elizabeth Gabriel sat up all night
stringing the popcorn for our
Victorian Christmas Tree
who knew she was our very own Martha Stewart

It looks wonderful!







Roasted the chestnuts










The food is cut, diced, marinated, stuffed, roasted and
waits to be finished off tomorrow.
The decorations are complete:
English Crackers are waiting to be popped,
pomegranates, grapes and pears are piled high, figgy pudding
is setting in the fridge, the punch bowl is chilling and our eggnog is perfect

Mr. Dickens will arrive in the morning and I think we will be ready!

Until then...goodnight