Earlier this year I put together this wintry tabletop for The Local Palate (photographed by Sweet Root Village), and it’s currently on newsstands (for all my local friends, Wegmans and Harris Teeter carry the magazine!). I think this table would be simply gorgeous for a New Year’s Eve dinner party, with the metallic  and pops of color! This peacock blue tablecloth is my new favorite. I picked it up at Crate & Barrel outlet, and it’s so luxurious and adds just the right amount of texture and color. I even packed it up and mailed it to my sister to use on her Thanksgiving tabletop!

Do you celebrate New Year’s Eve? Growing up, it was one of my favorite holidays….we’d typically stay home as a family (all nine of us), work for hours creating the hors d’oeuvres feast of your dreams (complete with shrimp cocktail, stuffed mushrooms, and pigs in a blanket), chill lots of sparkling cider, watch a Christmas movie, and buy all the crazy party poppers and sparkly hats and noise makers from the party store I worked at for 5 years. We’d all gather around the TV and watch the ball drop and all stay up well past midnight. Sometimes we even got to invite friends 😉

I still love the idea of New Years, but with kids and old age (ha!), I hardly have the energy to go out, let alone even stay up until midnight. Most of our friends have kids, too, which makes it hard for them to come over to our place. Maybe a New Year’s party that ends at 10 pm? haha….

Maybe we’ll have a few people over this year…if we do, I’ll for sure serve some of this Pear Thyme Fizz…my favorite type of drink. Light, mildly sweet, and fizzy.

Pear Nectar and Thyme Fizz
serves 6


Ingredients
1 cup pear nectar juice
1 ripe pear, sliced thinly
handful of fresh thyme
1 bottle sparkling wine

Directions
Combine pear nectar, sliced pear, and thyme (reserve some for garnish) in a pitcher. Stir and refrigerate mixture for up to 4 hours. When ready to serve, remove thyme from pitcher and pour into 6 champagne glasses. Top with sparkling wine. Garnish with sprig of thyme. Enjoy & drink responsibly!